SUKKUR Sept 15: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) suffered its first election setback after one of its national assembly candidate, Sardar Ali Mohammad Khan Maher, announced to return the party ticket and contest the polls as an independent candidate from NA-201 in the Ghotki district.

The announcement was made at a press conference at Maher House in Ghotki on Sunday.

Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Maher also announced to contest on PS-6 Ghotki against the PPP candidate, Ahmed Ali Maher, who is also a close relative of Sardar Ali Muhammad Khan Maher.

Attributing his decision to leave the party on what he called dirty party politics in Ghotki, he said the leadership was least concerned with discipline and that it had opposed his candidature as well his qualifications.

He said a faction within the party had waged a legal battle against him at the returning officer’s level in the election tribunal trying to get his form rejected. He said that this state of affairs had disheartened him and had forced him to leave the party with “pain and grief”. He, however, dispelled the impression that he had been forced by the government to abandon the party, saying he was not joining the “King’s Party”.

Earlier, Advocate Abdul Latif Shah, General-Secratory PPP Ghotki, had filed objections against him before the returning officer and had challenged his graduation degree, which he obtained from the Allama Iqbal University, Islamabad. His objections were consequently turned down by the returning officer.

Later, Abdul Latif Shah had filed an application against the nomination of Sardar Ali Muhammad Khan Maher in the election tribunal, which was also rejected. The election tribunal had validated the nomination form of Sardar Ali Muhammad Khan Maher.

The local PPP leadership was divided into two groups: one led by Khalid Lund while the other was led by the Mahers.

Benazir, the party chairperson, had decided to allocate one national assembly seat and three provincial assembly seats to the Maher tribe and the other national assembly seat and one provincial assembly seat to the Lunds. This decision was unwelcome to the group opposing the Mahers.

The president of the PPP (Sindh) Nisar Khoro has expelled the party’s Ghotki secretary general Advocate Abdul Latif Shah. A show-cause notice has also been issued against Abdul Latif for “gross misconduct of party discipline”.

Meanwhile, two women leaders of the PPP strongly criticized the rejection of Benazir Bhutto’s nomination papers on Sunday.

The PPP ladies wing president, Sindh Chapter, Dr Yasmeen Shah, and its president, Khairpur, Dr Mehreen Bhutto, while speaking to a group of journalists in Sukkur on Sunday, said that the rejection of the nomination papers of Benazir Bhutto has further strengthened the resolve of the party to carry on its struggle for the restoration of democracy.

Monitoring programme: The Nazim of Sukkur district, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Saturday inaugurated the third phase of the three-day monitoring and nurturing programe on women’s political participation project (W3P).

The programme is being conducted for the women councilors from Shikarpur, Larkana and jacobabad districts under the aegis of the Directorate of Social welfare and Women Development at a local hotel.

Syed Nasir Hussain stressed on the need for community participation for removal of poor people’s grievances, enabling them to lead a respectable life in the society.

The district Nazim said that similar programmes should also be conducted for the Nazmeen.

He underlined the need for constituting a public safety commission to curb police excesses.

While speaking on the occasion, the coordinator of the programme, Ashfaq Ahmed Qadri, said that the programme was aimed at providing training besides enabling the councilors to discharge their duties in a better manner.

The EDO Education, Prof Rafia Naz Pathan, also spoke on the occasion.