Saturday witnessed around six national and provincial lawmakers from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Punjab change their loyalties towards the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Claiming to have been among the founding members of the PML-N, the Raja family of Jhelum have started a “phase-wise” defection to the PPP.
Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan, who has been elected as MNA and senator on PML-N tickets from Jhelum since 1985, joined the PPP along with two of his sons, MNAs Raja Safdar and Raja Asad, in what he claimed was the first phase.
One of the Rajas told Pakistan Today on the sidelines of the press conference held at the PPP Media Centre that the defections were a result of “monopoly” of the Sharif brothers over party affairs.
“The PPP is a federal party without a one-man show while there (in PML-N) the two brothers hold a monopoly,” one of the two MNAs present on the occasion told Pakistan Today. The MNA wanted to remain anonymous, saying his father would be spilling the beans about their defection in a subsequent briefing.
The briefing was conducted by PPP chief whip in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah along with MNA Faryal Talpur.
Welcoming the newcomers, Khursheed Shah said the Rajas were a big political family of Jhelum. Without naming the provincial lawmakers, he said Khan along with four MPAs and two MNAs would be joining his party.
He said the Rajas first met President Asif Ali Zardari at Bilawal House where they decided to join PPP.
In his short address, Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan said he had been affiliated with the PML-N since the party’s inception. “I have left PML-N and believe that the rest of my life would be spent with the PPP,” he said.
Khan said in the first phase, three of his MNAs joined the PPP. Others, he said, would be joining later.
MNA Raja Safdar later told Pakistan Today that four of the MPAs, also from Jhelum, would be announcing their affiliation with the PPP in the “second phase”.
Asked if she was tasked to cause defections from other parties, MNA Faryal Talpur said the PPP was a huge party and people wanted to join it out of their own will. “This is the beginning. There are more people to come,” she said.