PTI guillotining PPP in Punjab, bit by bit

ISLAMABAD: A number of key leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) particularly in Punjab has conveniently fallen in the lap of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), treating it as a better bet in future general elections.

Almost all the PPP deserters once held important cabinet positions in its previous government and were considered its hardcore for their association with it for decades. However, some of them had joined the PPP not very long time ago and had affiliated themselves with it taking it as a good option to win the elections.

The PTI is steadily wiping out the PPP in Punjab, if it has not already done this as far as the latter’s prominent leaders are concerned. The PPP workers, who are demoralized and dejected because of their party government’s worst performance from 2008 to 2013, are yet to come out of the state that struck them in the last polls.

The PTI is thrilled over easily getting a large willing horde from the PPP, which is in search of greener pastures. It is vigorously working on its ambitious project of hunting for maximum electables particularly in Punjab that it eyes most in the next grand electoral fight.

Such a mass exodus from the PPP reinforces the impression that most of its leading lights have lost hope in it and believed that they can’t even think of bagging a respectable number of votes in any election if they remain glued to it. They have before them the results of successive by-elections in the majority province in which the PPP’s performance was extremely depressing.

Some more PPP leaders are waiting in the wings to jump on the PTI bandwagon. One of them, who is away from the TV screens for quite some to avoid putting up his usual aggressive defence of the PPP, is included among them. Another stalwart was a minister of state in the last PPP government. Earlier, the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) massively fell prey to the PTI’s onslaught of looking for potential winnable candidates. Once known as the king’s party, the king being Pervez Musharraf at the peak of his dictatorial rule, the PML-Q has been colossally bled by the PTI. With the next polls being just a year away, the PPP lot is running towards the PTI to qualify for its tickets for the upcoming electoral fight.

Almost all the PPP leaders including Nazar Gondal, Samsam Bokhari, Ashraf Sohna, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Raja Riaz and some others, who have joined the PTI, had faced humiliating defeats in the 2013 parliamentary polls. The first to come to the PTI from the PPP was Shah Mehmood Qureshi long time ago, before the 2013 elections. There have not been large scale defections from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chapter of the PPP except the change of loyalty by its fabulously rich leader, Noor Alam, who is certainly a significant loss to it and a good catch for the PTI.

While the PPP is at its lowest ebb in Punjab in its history, its hold over Sindh is not only intact but has become stronger. Even those aligned with the PML-N and PTI in that province consider the PPP as the better option. One senior PTI leader and a member of the National Assembly of the PML-N have already gone to the PPP.

Whereas the PTI is tremendously consolidating its position in Punjab by opting for any number of available electables and winnables, regardless of their past political affiliations, and has made good gains, it has not got many faces from other parties in this province.

While abandoning their party, none from the PPP has preferred the PML-N. Similarly, none from the PML-N has moved to the PTI or the vice versa. Javed Hashmi is an exception. The PPP doesn’t figure in the electoral scenario of Punjab. With its huge relegation, the future electoral fight in the majority province is going to be one-to-one between the PML-N and PTI.