In an apparent bitter and prompt reply to the sit-in protest led by Opposition Leader Nisar Ali Khan outside the Presidency, the Pakistan People’s Party on Saturday succeeded in wooing Nisar’s two cousins – Waqar Khan and Sardar Iqbal Khan – to join the PPP, in an apparent bid to tell the masses that the PML-N firebrand was not trusted even by his kith and kin.
Both Waqar and Sardar Iqbal have twice been members of the provincial assembly on PML-N ticket from Nisar’s ancestral constituency. Waqar is the son of Nisar’s paternal uncle, while Sardar Iqbal is the son of Nisar’s paternal aunt. A PPP leader said it was a well-timed move by the Presidency to tell Nisar and the masses that even his blood relatives did not trust him.
“Nisar claimed in the sit-in that the people of the country had lost confidence in President Asif Zardari. In reply, Zardari told the nation that the opposition leader’s kith and kin had no trust in him,” he added. He said Nisar’s bitter rivals, former deputy speaker Haji Nawaz Khokhar and a real estate tycoon, had played key role in convincing the PML-N leaders and cousins of the opposition leader to part ways with the PML-N.
The timing of the move clearly hints that it was a reaction by the property mogul whose arrest orders were issued two days ago by the Punjab Anti-Corruption director general in a land scam case. Another PPP leader claimed that in the days to come, some other close relatives of Nisar would also join the PPP. “The step will help dividing the vote bank of Nisar in the next election,” he claimed.
Nisar has been alleging for the last few months that a few presidential aides were planning to rig the next election in his NA-52 constituency by enrolling fake voters. The development is likely to benefit Ghulam Sarwar Khan of the PML-Q, a conventional electoral rival of Nisar. On the other hand, PML-N leaders claim that the duo had no political influence in Nisar’s constituency. “They secured MPA seats in the past with Nisar’s support.
Nisar neglected both in 2008 general election and they were not awarded PML-N tickets for the provincial assembly seats, leading to development of differences within Nisar’s family,” a PML-N leader said. He said the move by the Presidency, executed by the trio of Malik Riaz, Nawaz Khokhar and Faryal Talpur, would end in a fiasco. Addressing a news conference accompanied by PPP leaders Faryal Talpur, Jehangir Badr, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Haji Nawaz Khokhar, the dissidents said they had spent a long time with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, but they differed with his policies.
Waqar and Sardar Iqbal said: “We have said good bye to the PML-N forever and joined the PPP unconditionally. The Sharif brothers were not listening to the suggestions of party workers.”
Nisar abandoned by his own
