GUJRAT, Nov 28: The PPP had to face another major 'setback' in the district as its veteran politician Raja Rasheed Jaral from Jalalpur Jattan along with a Naib Nazim and 20 councillors joined the ruling PML on Sunday.

Mr Jaral is a UC Nazim from Jalalpur Jattan and a lawyer by profession. He was elected the secretary-general of Gujrat Bar Association. When the GBA started agitation against the DPO in October 2003, Rasheed Jaral actively participated in the campaign and was considered to be the right hand of bar President Tariq Javed Chaudhry, a PPP man, and lost his provincial assembly seat against Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in Oct 2002 elections.

During his way to support the agitation against the DPO, he was booked under Sections 6/7 ATA, 341/340, 153/186, 147/149 and 16 MPO by Gujrat Saddar police for taking out a caravan to receive exiled PML-N leader Mian Shahbaz Sharif on May 11.

He was arrested by the police but bailed out by an anti-terrorism court which rejected the police's plea to grant his physical remand. He was later acquitted. Civil lines police have registered a case against Mr Jaral on June 10 on the charge of practising law on a fake degree. The Sections imposed in the FIR were 420, 468 and 471 while the complainant was Advocate Shafqatullah Butt.

Later, Advocate Chaudhry Khalid Muzaffar submitted a written application against Mr Jaral to the Punjab Bar Council seeking cancellation of his license. The PBC sent his law degree to the relevant university for verification and cancelled his license on Aug 23 when his degree was allegedly found fake.

Sources close to him said that the local PPP leadership did not support him as he was expecting help for litigation in his cases. When he realized that his party high-ups were only 'using' him and he was playing in their hands, he did not rest with other option but to part his ways with the PPP and join the PML, they said.

At a function being hosted in the honour of MNA Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain by mill owner Raja Bashir Jaral at Nagina Flour Mills in Jalalpur Jattan on Sunday, Rasheed Jaral along with Naib Nazim Abdur Rahman Ansari and 20 councillors announced joining the PML.

District Nazim Chaudhry Shafaat Hussain, Gujrat tehsil Nazim Saadat Nawaz Ajnala and PML Jalalpur Jattan city president Babar Saleem Khokhar were also present on the occasion.

The union council from where Mr Jaral is a Nazim falls into the constituency of MNA Wajahat Hussain. Local political pundits have been considering the joining of Jaral and his companions a major setback for the People's Party.

The PPP is gradually losing popularity in the district. MNA Rahman Naseer Marala and MPA Amir Usman won the Oct 2002 polls on the PPP tickets but later they joined the PML.

Kharian tehsil councillor Asif Dhama had also quit the PPP and joined the PML. Son of former Lalamusa MC chairman Mirza Jamshed Ali Shamas had also quit the PPP and the formal announcement to join the PML is expected soon.

Kharian tehsil Naib Nazim Dr. Javed Riaz, earlier, belonged to the Jamaat-i-Islami and formed an alliance with PPP tehsil Nazim Nadeem Asghar Kaira. But he not only changed his loyalties and joined the PML but also ended the alliance with the PPP. Ex-PPP city president Manzoor Hussain Dar had also parted his ways with the party and joined the PML a few days ago.

DEATH AWARDED: Kharian Additional District and Sessions Judge Maqarab Khan on Saturday handed down capital punishment to a killer and seven-year rigorous imprisonment to the other.