A jiyala saved is a jiyala earned

• With PPP Punjab working to stop defection of its leaders to PTI, Samsam Bokhari, Nazar Gondal, Imtiaz Warriach reiterate commitment to party
• Sources say Shah Mehmood Qureshi wooing PPP leaders into joining PTI, seeking revenge from PPP leadership which had preferred Gilani over him during PPP’s last tenure

After Ashraf Sohna’s resignation from the party over Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab President Mian Manzoor Wattoo’s “bias behaviour”, the PPP Punjab leadership has started working to stop further possible defections to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Former federal minister Syed Samsam Ali Bokhari told Pakistan Today that he has some reservations from the party and its leadership in Punjab. “I have not taken the decision to leave the party as yet.”

Meanwhile, PPP Punjab chief Wattoo made a phone call to Samsam on Tuesday to discuss party matters. During their discussion, Samsam said that he had no intention of leaving the party despite the “pressure”.

Watoo told Pakistan Today that Samsam was a “valuable asset” of the party and “his service to the party’s cause and ideology was immensely valued by the leadership”. “I am meeting Peer Sahab (Samsam Bokhari) on Thursday and his reservations will be addressed immediately,” Wattoo said.

A large section of the print and electronic media reported that after Sohna, Nazar Gondal from Mandi Bahauddin, Imtiaz Safdar Warriach from Gujranawala and Qayyum Jatoi from Muzzafargarh were also planning to leave PPP.

In this regard, Gondal also telephoned Wattoo on Tuesday and reiterated his commitment to the party and its leadership, adding that he had no intention of leaving the party as reported by the media.

Talking to this scribe in this regard, former federal minister Gondal said that “these are all rumours”. “We faced atrocities and also sacrificed lives but remained with PPP in difficult times. We are not leaving PPP,” said Gondal.

Moreover, according to a party insider, the Gondals had been with the PPP through thick and thin since the time of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Four members of their family had made it to the national and provincial assemblies in 2008 elections as Nazar Gondal and his younger brother Zulfiqar Gondal were elected MNA and MPA and their nephews Nadeem Afzal Chan and Waseem Afzal Chan were elected MNA and MPA on PPP tickets, he added.

The Gondals were angry from the PPP leadership over its “conciliatory tone” towards the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and over the issue when in 2014 the Federal Investigation Agency arrested one of their family members; Zafar Gondal, in a case regarding irregularities in the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI), the party source said, however adding that nobody could question their loyalty towards the party.

Furthermore, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich also rejected media reports, terming them rumours, and maintained that he was not leaving the party. “I am in PPP and will always remain in PPP,” said Warraich.

QURESHI’S REVENGE:

In the meanwhile, according to party insiders, Shah Mehmood Qureshi is in touch with PPP bigwigs in Punjab who had had reservations from the PPP leadership since last year. He is making all-out efforts to win PPP leaders and convince them to join PTI, they added.

“It seems Shah Mehmood Qureshi is taking revenge from former president Asif Ali Zardari and PPP leadership which had preferred Yousaf Raza Gilani over him in the last tenure of PPP government,” a former PPP MNA told Pakistan Today.

Qureshi had been constantly in touch with seasoned PPP leaders from Punjab including Nazar Gondal, Raja Riaz from Faisalabad, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich from Gujranwala, Samsam Bukhari, Sardar Bahadur Khan Sehar and Malik Niaz Jhakar from Layyah, Aamir Dogar from Multan, Sardar Saif Khan Khosa from DG Khan and Qayyum Jatoi from Muzzaffargarh.

“He had only managed to convince Aamir Dogar, Malik Niaz Jhakar, Sardar Bahadur Khan Sehar and Sardar Saif Khan Khosa to join PTI but failed to convince others,” said the former PPP MNA, adding that he was hopeful that all the people who had left PPP will return before the next general elections.

Another party source told this scribe that all the leaders who had left PPP had reservations that the party was not playing its role of a tough opposition in Punjab and had a “conciliatory tone” towards PML-N, making it difficult for them to play the opposition’s role in Punjab.

“But now there is a policy shift in PPP’s strategy and it will become a tough opposition for PML-N,” the insider said, adding that the approach was witnessed during a successful protest on load shedding against the government in Lahore.