LARKANA: A group of politicians and other influential figures on Friday announced the launch of the Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI) with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mumtaz Ali Bhutto being its patron-in-chief.

They made the announcement after holding a meeting for the purpose at the residence former Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Haji Munawwar Ali Abbasi, who has been appointed LAI convener. Mr Abbasi was refused a PPP ticket in the last general elections.

Among those present at the meeting were Mumtaz Bhutto’s son Amir Bukhsh Bhutto, Akbar Shah Rashdi of the PML-Functional, Shafqat Unnar of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Qurban Ali Abbasi and Badar Abbasi (sons of the late Maulana Jan Mohammed Abbasi who are currently in the PML-N), Babu Sarfraz Jatoi and Fida Hussain Gopang.

After taking stock of the situation in the country, particularly in Sindh, the leaders arrived at the conclusion that people were getting sick of rampant corruption, deteriorating law and order, poor governance and certain other unresolved issues.

They noted that those in power had been ignoring the masses, who were facing multi-faceted problems as corruption had crept into all departments and the law and order situation was getting fragile.

“Under these circumstances, formation of this alliance had become necessary to provide the masses a forum for raising their voice and pressing the government to end their sufferings,” Munawwar Abbasi told the media.

“Although some of us are in different political parties, our position in this forum will be regardless of it,” he said, adding that he would be heading a seven-member committee which would prepare LAI’s manifesto and the line of action.

The committee, he said, would meet within a fortnight at the residence of Amir Bakhsh Bhutto.

In their talk to the media, the leaders did not come up with a clear idea behind the alliance but the assembly of divergent political figures for the new forum appeared to be their intention to give tough time to the PPP in the upcoming local government elections and public mobilisation on major issues.

The LAI convener said that Dr Safdar Abbasi, who heads the newly-formed Pakistan Peoples Party-Workers (PPP-W), would be part of this alliance.

Munawwar Abbasi’s family had developed differences with the PPP during the 2013 elections and finally he, his brother Safdar Abbasi, and son, Moazzam Abbasi, contested and lost to their respective PPP rivals. Amir Bhutto and Shafqat Unnar had also suffered defeat at the hands of their PPP rivals.

After losing against PPP’s Suhail Siyal in a by-election, Shafqat Unnar joined the PTI. The disgruntled but influential political figures along with some other like-minded people of their stature have taken the new initiative to forcefully raise the voice of their supporters as well as those disappointed by bad governance.

In a situation where the PPP has survived in Larkana with certain fissures within it, a consensus candidate to be fielded by the LAI might give a tough time to the ruling party’s candidates. Creeping differences within the Larkana PPP also provide a strong argument to its opponents in this regard.

LAI patron-in-chief Mumtaz Bhutto, even after merger of his Sindh National Front with the PML-N, is not comfortable with the parent party and he never hid his feelings after the general elections were over.

He has been complaining that the PML-N leadership has deviated from its commitments it had made for the merger.

This appeared to be one of the factors contributing to the formation of the LAI.

Munawwar Abbasi told the media that the scope of the alliance would be extended to the entire territory of undivided Larkana district.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play