HYDERABAD: Former PPP Sindh deputy general secretary Dr Sikandar Shoro has returned to the party-fold after his meeting in Lahore with Asif Ali Zardari.

He confirmed his decision of rejoining the party while talking to Dawn over phone after his meeting with the PPP co-chairman.

Dr Shoro had left the party following his differences with Sardar Malik Asad Sikandar, considered to be the ‘king of Jamshoro’s Kohistan area’.

Sardar Asad Sikandar was given party ticket for the PS-82 Kotri taluka (in Jamshoro district) constituency in the July 25, 2018 general elections. Dr Shoro had given tough time to him in the election but lost with a narrow margin of a little over 3,000 votes.

Dr Shoro was backed by Jam Khan Shoro, the Sindh Irrigation Minister from Hyderabad.

Sadiq Shoro, former Jamshoro district council vice chairman, along with Sardar Kamboh Khan Birhamani and Arab Khan Birhamani (brother and son of Saleh Khan Birhamani, respectively), also returned to the PPP fold.

It was the Shoro-Birhamani alliance that had faced Malik Asad Sikandar in the PS-82 contest.

Dr Shoro had challenged the results in the election tribunal but lost the case as well.

Malik Asad Sikandar had also fallen out of PPP-Parliamentarians favour a few years back (2017) after developing differences over land acquisition in some villages.

Malik Asad also faced the Jamshoro Ittehad — a conglomerate of parties opposing him and supported by local communities, individuals and wealthy Hindu community of Kohisan — in the 2022 LG polls.

In last year’s LG polls, Shoros won six out of Jamshoro’s 30 UCs. The rest were won by PPP. Shoro is maternal grandson of Haji Siddique Shoro, who has been a PPP diehard and elected MPA from Kotri.

“The PPP co-chairman wants all old colleagues to rejoin his party and that’s why Dr Sikandar Shoro has rejoined PPP,” Jam Khan told Dawn from Lahore over phone.

Dr Shoro has been a main political player in Jamshoro’s politics but he is not in good books of Dr Sikandar Shoro.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2023