PTI may pull the rug from under the feet of PPP, ANP in Sindh

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf might dent the vote-bank of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in rural Sindh and the Awami National Party (ANP)’s in Karachi.
Sources said many anti-PPP leaders of the rural parts of the province as well as Pakhtun leaders and tribal chiefs in the provincial capital, Karachi, are likely to join the PTI soon.
Political observers believe this could make things difficult for the PPP’s long-established power base in Sindh’s rural areas as well as cause a heavy loss to the ANP’s popularity among Karachi’s Pakhtuns.
According to the sources, PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) President Asad Qaiser was given the responsibility to contact Pakhtun leaders and tribal chiefs in Karachi so he can convince them to join his party.
Moreover, the sources added, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi has contacted anti-PPP leaders – including the Maher brothers of Ghotki, the Jatoi brothers of Naushehro Feroze, the Shirazis of Thatta, former Sindh minister Irfan Gul Magsi and former Sindh chief minister Liaquat Jatoi – to woo them to join the PTI at the party’s rally on December 25 in Karachi. Qureshi has also contacted Punjabi Pakhtun Ittehad (PPI) President Irfanullah Marwat.
The sources said the PTI KP president had contacted many Pakhtun leaders of Karachi, mainly active leaders and activists of the ANP, via telephone and would arrive in Karachi after Ashura to meet them personally.
Many Pakhtun leaders, including former ANP Central Committee member Shah Pervez and Mehsud tribal chief Saif Rehman Mehsud, are expected to join the PTI very soon, the sources added.
PPI President Irfanullah Marwat confirmed that he was contacted by Qureshi. “I told Qureshi to ask [PTI chief] Imran Khan to clarify his stance on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) before I can consider joining the PTI,” he said.
“To us, the MQM is an opponent and a criminal mafia. We support former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza’s stance about the party. If a leader like Imran Khan changes his stand on the MQM, then how can I join him and how will I be able to convince my supporters?”