LAHORE, July 17: Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, a former federal minister from Bahawalnagar, and his son, Senator Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal, were among ‘hundreds’ of leaders who on Tuesday left the ruling PML and joined the Pakistan People’s Party.

The day witnessed similar defections from the ruling party from Layyah, Hafizabad and Kasur whose nazims, naib nazims and members of local councils at different tiers along with their ‘biradaris’ joined the PPP. Their joining the PPP was announced by jubilant Punjab PPP president Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi who held conferences with intervals at the Lahore Press Club.

Asked if the political turncoats now joining the PPP, as they were feeling a wind of change, would lend any strength to the party, Mr Qureshi got annoyed and said he knew his job very well and he enjoyed complete backing of the party chairperson.

However, a PPP leader told Dawn on the condition of anonymity that Benazir Bhutto wanted politically influential people joining hands with the PPP in districts where it had either no potential candidates or they were fewer than the party’s requirement. He said that Ms Bhutto had asked the Punjab party leadership to focus on Jhelum, Dera Ghazi Khan, Layyah, Bhakkar and one or two more districts and not to hunt such persons from areas where there was sufficient PPP potential.

Although (Mr Qureshi claimed) the entrants were joining without the condition of the party ticket, he said, the process for distribution of tickets would be made flexible to accommodate certain entrants, particularly those having the potential to win.

Flanked by provincial PPP secretary-general Ghulam Abbas and Abdul Qadir Shaheen, the Punjab president told a news conference that the politically influential people from Bahwalnagar district and its tehsils — Haroonabad, Fort Abbas and Chishtian — were joining the PPP.

He issued a list of about 350 such people who had left the ruling PML.

Chaudhry Ghafoor came to the political limelight in the 1985 non-party elections when he was elected to the Punjab Assembly. He lost the 2002 election as a PML-N candidate against the PPP’s Mian Mumtaz Matiana who later defected to the PML. Chaudhry Ghafoor also shifted his loyalty and joined the ruling party which supported his son Zafar Iqbal to reach the Senate.

In reply to a question, Shah Mahmood Qureshi criticised ruling party president Chaudhry Shujaat Husain for threatening the imposition of emergency in case of en bloc resignations from assemblies and said the PPP would resist such a move by political and legal means.

He also said the chief minister was conducting interviews of election aspirants at meetings where people from intelligence agencies also were present. He appealed to the Election Commission of Pakistan to take notice of the practice.

As for Hafizabad, Mr Qureshi said a number of certain former PPP people, who had been ‘angry’ with the party for certain reasons in the past, had decided to return home. He gave about 20 such names, including Omar Khan Tarar and Fahad Khan Tarar whose father had contested for a National Assembly seat from NA-102 and lost.

PML (Layyah city) secretary-general Qasim Bin Sajjad, PML ticket-holder from PP-265 Sardar Sajjad Husain and Kehror Pacca tehsil naib nazim Chaudhry Niaz Ahmad Gujjar were among the 10 who joined the PPP from Layyah.

Rana Abdul Shakoor, also a member of the Punjab Bar Council, introduced union council nazims, naib nazims and members defecting the PML to the PPP from Kasur.

PML REACTION: Provincial minister and PML secretary-general Chaudhry Zaheeruddin said when Mr Ghafoor lost elections, the PML got his son elected as a senator and also carried out development activities in his constituency while he availed himself of all sorts of benefits; still he turned a political turncoat. He claimed that his son was still in the PML.

Mr Zaheer said in an attempt to increase its numbers, the PPP was receiving even such ‘elements’ as Mian Umar Tarar from Hafizabad when he had just been released from the prison.

“What message the PPP is trying to convey to its veterans and workers by inducting elements who were motivated only by vested interest and political blackmailers”, he added.