Ashraf Sohna leaves PPP, will join PTI soon!

• The PPP leader claims he decided to leave party on account of PPP Punjab president’s ‘bias attitude’, says will present charge sheet against Wattoo today
• Wattoo says Sohna was dismissed from party, opines he only damaged his personal political standing by leaving party

Senior politician Ashraf Sohna has decided to leave Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and is likely to formally join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in a couple of days, Pakistan Today has learnt.

The former provincial minister and PPP leader decided to leave the party apparently perturbed over PPP Punjab President Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo’s “biased behaviour”.

“Wattoo has given all the party positions in Punjab to his family members, including his daughter Jahanara Wattoo and son Khurram Jahangir Wattoo,” said Sohna while talking to Pakistan Today.

Sohna said that Wattoo demanded “personal loyalty” from the workers and party leaders as opposed to “loyalty for the party”.

“I will present the charge sheet against Wattoo in a press conference tomorrow,” Sohna said, adding that he had meetings with the PTI leadership and will soon join the party.

‘SOHNA WAS DISMISSED’:

“Sohna who was serving as PPP Okara president was dismissed from the party office yesterday,” said PPP Punjab President Mian Manzoor Wattoo while talking to Pakistan Today.

Wattoo held that Sohna had only harmed his personal political standing. “The party always respected him but for the last many days he was in touch with PTI leadership and was planning to leave PPP,” he said.

Upon a query pertaining to allegations against him rendering party positions to his son and daughter, Wattoo clarified that both his children were given positions before he assumed the office of party’s provincial chief.

“My son Khurram Jahangir Wattoo is the only MPA in Punjab who had defeated PML-N in the by-elections and he was made the secretary of the Central Youth Wing by the top brass of the party,” said Wattoo.

SOHNA PROCURING MEN FOR PTI:

Moreover, according to party insiders, Sohna contacted local PPP leadership in Okara, including Okara City President Alam Sher Khan Lodhi, Okara Tehsil President Rana Basit Khan, Renala Tehsil President Rana Abdul Rehman and Dipalpur President Malik Shahzad Naul Tehsil, asking them to join PTI with him but none of them are leaving the party with him.

Alam Sher Khan Lodhi told Pakistan Today that we had warned Sohna not to leave the party as he will only harm his own political career.

“The local leadership of PPP is not leaving the party with Sohna,” said Rana Basit Khan.

INTERNAL RIFTS MAY PROVE FATAL:

Furthermore, according to party insiders, the internal rifts and party groupings in PPP would prove a fatal blow to PPP ahead of local government elections.

In the process of breathing a new life into the party, its chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is likely to visit Punjab this week, will face powerful intra-party groups, especially in Punjab where the party is divided into four groups, PPP leaders and workers on anonymity told Pakistan Today.

“The party is running along group lines and the major groups are headed by Mian Manzoor Wattoo, Nadeem Afzal Chan, Qamaruz Zaman Kaira and Yousaf Raza Gilani,” said a party insider.

A PPP insider told Pakistan Today that Sohna belonged to the Chan group of PPP. “Party leadership must get rid of these groups within the party if they want to restore the lost glory of PPP in Punjab,” the party insider warned.