HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peo­ples Party-Parliamen­tarians (PPP-P) president Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said that he will not quit the party but in the same breath complained that the party leadership is not keeping its word as far as his Sarwari Jamaat’s representation in and outside the party is concerned.

“I will not quit the party and if the party leaves me out, I will catch hold of it,” he emphatically stated while talking to Dawn over the phone from Hala before going to attend a crucial meeting of his Sarwari Jamaat on Tuesday.

Makhdoom Fahim proceeded to Hala from Karachi to chair the meeting for consultation with the Jamaat’s senior leaders over the situation arising out of the PPP’s internal decisions which, he believes, are directly affecting the Jamaat.

“I have every right to speak my mind over party affairs and if there is any issue, I will certainly speak to the party leadership,” said Mr Fahim, who is embroiled in an election controversy as his Pakistan Muslim League-Functional rival on NA-218 seat, Abdul Razzaq Memon, has challenged his election.

Mr Fahim’s recent reported meeting with former president retired General Pervez Musharraf has triggered rumours of his intention of parting ways with the PPP.

“The PPP is a big party and there are so many things that are given serious consideration. If you get less attention you definitely feel it,” the Makhdoom said. He said he, his brothers and sons had always supported the party and so did the Sarwari Jamaat. “All of us have faced tough times during dictatorial regimes,” he recalled, and said that PPP lawmakers used to be recommended and nominated by the Jamaat members/disciples but after getting elected, the lawmakers cold-shouldered them.

The PPP-P leader insisted that the top party leadership give due importance to the Jamaat.

“If it [Jamaat] doesn’t get its right, I will directly be affected. If the Jamaat is ignored, I stand ignored. That’s why we are holding this meeting with them [Jamaat representatives] and will hold consultation to evolve a future strategy.”

Makhdoom Fahim described the meeting as ‘usual’ saying that the Jamaat had been holding such meetings regularly but the media was taking the current one as unusual, as if something exceptional was going to happen.

Giving reasons for believing that the Jamaat was being neglected by the PPP leadership, he said people backed by it and holding party and parliamentary positions were being removed.

“In Badin, Ghulam Ali Nizamani was not given a ticket and in Umerkot Sardar Shah was preferred over Sami Rajar for the National and Sindh assembly seats, respectively, without any reason,” he said.

He said [Chief Minister] Qaim Ali Shah and [MNA] Faryal Talpur had promised that Sami Rajar would be made PPP Umerkot district president but it was not done. “What does it mean and why did they not keep their promise?” he asked, and himself replied: “They just lied.”

He recalled how he had been nominated for the prime ministerial slot when the PPP was to form a government in the centre and then some other person was preferred. “But I didn’t take it that way as we have to get along with [PPP],” he said.

Mr Fahim was of the view that there was nothing objectionable in his meeting with Pervez Musharraf. “I was sitting with Raja Saeen [PML-F chief] as we are friends, though we have divergent views. He asked me to accompany him for a meeting with [Pervez] Musharraf. It was a private meeting, not a political one. The party takes so many decisions without consulting me, then what was the point of objection in that meeting on my part. He [Musharraf] is not in power,” he said.

Earlier, the Makhdoom told a group of journalists: “Whenever Nawaz Sharif forms a government, he and his family is targeted”. He said that not only Makhdoom Jamiluzzaman (his son), but many other ministers also didn’t have authority to work.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2014