GUJRAT: The Gujranwala region comprising six districts is probably the worst for Pakistan Peoples Party in Punjab in terms of defections of its stalwarts mainly at the hands of Pakistan PTI and, to some extent, the PML-N during the past two years.

Party’s Punjab `general secretary’ Nadeem Afzal Chan who joined the PTI on Thursday follows the footsteps of Dr Firdous Aashiq Awan (Sialkot), Imtiaz Safdar Warraich (Gujranwala) and Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Nazar Gondal’s brother ex-MNA Zulfiqar Gondal, ex-MNA Tariq Tarrar Raika, three former MPAs Tariq Sahi, Tariq Alloana and Waseem Chan (Mandi Bahauddin), Chaudhary Tariq Anees (Narowal), Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gull (Gujrat) who is inclined towards joining the PML-N due to his family’s presence in the ruling party.

Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts have once been the strongholds of the PPP until 2008 general elections. The party won almost all five National Assembly seats in the two districts in 1993 and four in 2008. The party had clean swept the Mandi Bahauddin district by winning both NA and five Punjab Assembly seats of the district in 2008.

At least seven PPP stalwarts from Gujranwala division, including Qamar Zaman Kaira, Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar, Nazar Gondal, Dr Firdous Aaashiq Awan, Tariq Anees, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gull (as an advisor to prime minister) had been elevated as federal ministers in the last PPP government at the center (2008-2013).

Sources say Qamar Zaman Kaira, PPP’s Punjab president, is under pressure from the Kaira family to reconsider affiliation ahead of the coming general elections.

Though Ahmed Mukhtar has not left the PPP, he has not been active since loosing the 2013 elections in Gujrat whereas his elder brother Ahmed Saeed or nephew Hassan Javed are said to be the likely candidates of PML-N from NA-69 (Gujrat city).Ironically, most of the desertions by the PPP stalwarts came from Gujranwala region after Kaira took charge of the Punjab PPP.

Talking to this reporter, Nadeem Afzal Chan said that he would formally join the PTI at his native village Pind Maku of Malakwal as Imran Khan has accepted his invitation to visit the village.

When asked about the reason to leave the PPP, he said that he did not want to utter any word against the party but it was his supporters’ opinion to join the PTI since the target in the next general elections was to defeat the remnants of dictator Gen Ziaul Haq (obvious reference to PML-N).

“My supporters think that anti PML-N vote bank would be divided in case of my contesting as a PPP candidate that was why I have decided to join the PTI,” said Mr. Chan who would contest the elections from previously known NA-64 and now NA- 88 in Bhalwal tehsil of Sargodha district where he had won the 2008 elections as a PPP nominee but lost in 2013 at the hands of the incumbent federal minister Pir Ameenul Hasnat Shah of the PML-N.

Chan had resigned from the office of Punjab PPP secretary general soon after the joining of PTI by his brother some six months ago. The party chairman had, however, not accepted the resignation.Dewan Shamim Akhtar, Gujranwala division PPP president who too belongs to Mandi Bahauddin district, lamented the number of desertions from the region and said that the party leadership had always showered its blessings on opportunists and so called electables instead of empowering ideological workers.

He said the party still had a number of good candidates for the next elections.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2018