Three KP politicians join PPP despite its dwindling fortunes

PESHAWAR: Politicians in other parts of the country are mostly quitting the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) due to their belief that it doesn’t have much of a chance to win the next general election, but this doesn’t seem to be the case in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, at least for the time-being.

Except in Sindh, which has always been a PPP stronghold and where it has been unbeatable in elections, the party’s fortunes have dwindled in the country. However, this hasn’t stopped the overly optimistic Asif Ali Zardari from predicting that the PPP would win the next year’s general election and form the government both in the centre and the provinces. In particular, he predicted PPP victory in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and said the next chief minister would be from his party.

Though Zardari’s claims are unbelievable and not supported by any evidence, he has continued to promote this line. The decision by three politicians in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recently to join the PPP should have gladdened his heart and encouraged him to continue claiming that his party has good chances of winning the polls in the province. The coming by-election in the National Assembly constituency, NA-4 Peshawar would be a test of his claim as the outcome would determine that PPP chances in the 2018 general election.

The PPP wasted no time in allotting the party ticket to Asad Gulzar Khan, son of the late Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) dissident MNA Gulzar Khan whose recent death necessitated the by-election. It didn’t even invite applications for the party ticket as there could have been no better candidate for the PPP in absence of any other real contender for the seat.

Asad Gulzar would have known he won’t get the PTI ticket as his father had been estranged from the party due to differences with Imran Khan. His family was also upset that neither Imran Khan nor any other senior PTI leader attended Gulzar Khan’s funeral or came to its home to offer condolences. Also, all other major political parties had their own candidates and his best chance was to seek the PPP ticket. It is a marriage of convenience for both as the PPP needed a good candidate in NA-4 and Asad Gulzar was in need of ticket of a major party to contest the by-election.

Asad Gulzar could seek votes in the name of his late father, who was a popular figure in the constituency for having served the people for years as a senior bureaucrat. He could also get some sympathy votes due to Gulzar Khan’s death. In fact, Asad Gulzar would do well not to depend too much on the PPP as it doesn’t really have a stable vote-bank in the constituency.

The other politician who recently joined the PPP is Arbab Saadullah Khan, a former MNA who also remained chairman of District Council Peshawar. He had been a member of the Awami National Party (ANP). He must have surveyed the political scene and fancied his chances being brighter if he joined the PPP and contested the next election on its ticket. This is now the new style in politics as politicians quit and join parties on the eve of elections not on the basis of ideology, but considering the chances of a party coming into power.

Another politician who has joined the PPP in this election year is Pir Nabi Amin, the Pir of Manki Sharif. He has been switching parties, but has yet to find the right party that could fulfill his political ambition. In elections, he has been able to get a sizeable number of votes, but yet not enough to help him win an assembly. From the look of things, Pir Nabi Amin seems to have erred again in choosing the right party as the PPP cannot help him to win from his constituency.