After consultations with the Sindh National Front (SNF) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), SNF Chairman Mumtaz Ali Khan Bhutto has decided to merge his party with the N-League, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Sources said that the merger of the two parties would be formally announced in a large public gathering on May 9 in Mirpur Bhutto, the native village of Mumtaz Bhutto located in the Larkana district. PML-N leaders Nawaz Sharif, the former Pakistan prime minister, and Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab Chief Minister, would arrive in the Sindh province a day earlier.
During his visit to Sindh on September 18 last year, Nawaz Sharif held a meeting with former Sindh governor and chief minister Mumtaz Bhutto.
In the meeting next month, both leaders are expected to make a big decision. Either an alliance would be formed against President Asif Ali Zardari, the Co-Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), or the SNF would be merged with the PML-N, with Mumtaz Bhutto receiving an important assignment in Sindh.
Whatever the two parties decide in the meeting, it would be the result of “backdoor diplomacy” that has been going on since a few years.
Eight months ago, Mumtaz Bhutto had visited Lahore and was a guest of the Sharifs, whereas some believe Bhutto was accommodated in the Punjab Chief Minister’s House.
Mumtaz Bhutto was a big name in his time in Sindh, leading his party after he quit the PPP when differences developed with Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.
During their last visit to Sindh, Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa and Mehtab Abbasi also met with Mumtaz Bhutto and discussed with him the political situation of the country as well as possibilities of a joint struggle against the government of the PPP.
After major changes within the PML-N in Sindh, Nawaz Sharif has started looking for new friends who could make a political force for him in the province, which holds importance after Punjab. Nawaz Sharif also met Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party Chairman Dr Qadir Magsi in Hyderabad.
Mumtaz Bhutto has called his party leaders to Karachi for further consultation with Nawaz Sharif. SNF spokesman Anwar Gujjar said, “Mumtaz Bhutto has made it clear to Nawaz Sharif that the basic cause of problem in the country is President Zardari. If there will be a move against the PPP government, the SNF will be with Nawaz Sharif.”
Regarding the rumours of the SNF merging with the PML-N, Gujjar said that they are baseless. “It is impossible because Mumtaz Bhutto has his own politics, which is entirely different from the PML-N’s.” However, he admitted that a close alliance is possible between the two parties.
In September last year, two meetings were held between Nawaz Sharif and Mumtaz Bhutto. The two leaders would hold a third meeting and then make an announcement regarding the outcome of these meetings. The third meeting might be convened in either Lahore or Karachi.
An insider said that in the first meeting, Nawaz Sharif, Mumtaz Bhutto and other leaders of their respective parties discussed the overall situation of the country and mulled over mutual cooperation between the two parties.
The second meeting was a one-on-one discussion between Nawaz Sharif and Mumtaz Bhutto, which lasted up to 40 minutes. Mumtaz Bhutto said that his party would support the struggle against the present government, saying that the PML-N always rescues this government, but now the N-League should openly oppose it. Sources said that Mumtaz Bhutto might retire from politics because of health reasons, whereas he is seeking a place for his son and SNF Vice President Ameer Bakhsh Khan Bhutto in the PML-N, which is currently mulling over the matter.
The question on everyone’s mind is that the PML-N leadership has failed to resolve problems within its party in the province of Sindh.
It still remains undecided who would be the president of the N-League in Sindh, as no proper party structure exists here. Without a proper party structure in Sindh, how has Nawaz Sharif started looking for allies in the province?
Sources said that during talks between Nawaz Sharif and Mumtaz Bhutto, it was decided that the SNF chairman would join the PML-N, but it remains to be seen when, where and on which position Bhutto joins the party.
The N-League has started wooing Mumtaz Bhutto because together they could give the PPP a tough time in the home district of President Zardari’s party.
Sources believe that Mumtaz Bhutto wants to make room for his son in the national politics. Since long, the SNF has not been able to win even a single seat in the provincial or national assembly.
Sources said that after the last meeting between Mumtaz Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in Lahore last year, it was decided that Bhutto and his son would join the PML-N.
Analysts, however, are saying that Mumtaz Bhutto is a major political name with minor political influence on the voters of his area.