Differences within the Sindh chapter of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have reached their peak and the party activists who sacrificed in the dictatorial era are being ignored, PML-N Senior Vice President Syed Ghaus Ali Shah said during a press conference held at his residence in the wee hours of Sunday.
“If I am expelled from the party, there are many other options for me. However, the PML-N is as much mine as it is Mian Nawaz Sharif’s,” Shah said. The PML-N is practically divided into two groups in Sindh, and Shah said that he does not want to be separated from the province. Some elements in the PML-N that do not belong to Sindh are trying to create differences among the workers in the province and these elements are a major bone of contention within the party, he added.
He congratulated the people of Sindh for taking part in the nationalists’ strike and said that the PML-N is with the nationalists in their general strike. “Some forces want to divide the province. If they succeed, Pakistan itself will not remain in one piece as it might also break. Sindh has initiated rebuilding Pakistan and the rulers must listen to the voices of the people of the province,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PML-N leadership had nominated Saleem Zia Advocate as the chief organiser of the party’s Sindh chapter and, according to sources, they want to nominate Zia as PML-N Sindh president, but the Ghaus Ali Shah group is unhappy with this development and terms Zia as an outsider in Sindh.
The position of the PML-N is weak in Sindh and this important province is being ignored by Nawaz Sharif, the central leadership of the party. A few months ago Sharif had succeeded in gaining sympathy of the Sindhi people when he met with Sindhi nationalists in his previous visit to the province.
However, all his efforts went in vain when the PML-N tried to forge a grand opposition alliance with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. Due to these differences, the position of the PML-N that was already in a very weak position in Sindh is weakening further.
