Ex-Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair parts ways with PMLN

KARACHI: Former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair on Sunday announced to quit the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) over some “reservations”.

Speaking to Geo News, Zubair, who did not disclose what issues exactly led to his departure, said he would take the decision about his future politics in consultation with his “friends”.

Zubair joins a list of top leaders who recently parted ways with the ruling party, including former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and ex-finance minister Miftah Ismail.

The politician has been critical of the incumbent government, which was formed after the February 8 elections, and also recently said he was in the party “like Abbasi”, hinting at his displeasure with the leadership.

When former Rawalpindi Division commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha made allegations that the election results were manipulated, Zubair had said that the PMLN should “publicly accept defeat” and allow the country to move on. However, Chatha backtracked on his claims.

While it is unclear whether he will join a political party or not, Abbasi had on April 8 approached the Election Commission of Pakistan for registration of a new political party.

Ismail is also supporting the formation of a new party of individuals having “proven integrity and competence”.

Talking to Geo News, Zubair said he stood by Nawaz’s stance of resistance, while Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s job was to back a reconciliatory stance.

Announcing to continue national politics, he said he has not yet decided which party he would join. “It’s clear that I will (continue to) do politics, but I haven’t decided from what platform or party I will do politics,” he said.

On why he quit the PMLN, he said he had no disagreements with Nawaz. “Obviously, he made me his spokesman, gave me space and prominent posts in politics,” he said. Zubair said he agreed to the PMLN’s politics which banked on the masses.

However, after the no-trust vote against former prime minister Imran Khan, “we saw that the party had quit the principled politics”, he said.

He said after the PML-N’s coming into power following Imran’s removal as the prime minister, those 16 months were “so bad that when the time of elections came in 2024, no party leader even once mentioned what they delivered in their rule of 16 months”.

On the party’s differing narratives, he said when the PTI was in power, the PMLN had two narratives — one was resisting and the other one a reconciliatory narrative.

Nawaz and his daughter Maryam carried the resisting narrative which stated “respect the ballot”, while Shehbaz carried the reconciliatory narrative that encompassed “coming into power by hook or by crook”.

“I stood by the resisting narrative, but since we had to defend the party so we would say that there was no difference in both the stances. Definitely, there was a huge difference,” he said.