PPP city leaders unhappy with Nadeem Bhutto’s appointment

Karachi
After officially kicking off its preparations for the local government elections due in September, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in Sindh has filled the slot of Karachi division’s secretary general, an office that has been vacant for several months, and also changed the secretary general of District South.
However, a number of PPP leaders, especially from Lyari, a stronghold of the party, have started criticising these appointments.
Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto, who is serving as the party’s president in District West, has been made divisional secretary general. The party’s Karachi organisational body was complete except the office of secretary general.
After the removal of Abdul Qadir Patel as PPP Karachi president on March 20, the party had been without a president and its affairs were being run by Senator Saeed Ghani, Rashid Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi, then divisional secretary general Syed Najmi Alam and some other leaders.
Alam had been promoted to the slot of president months ago, but the party had not able to fill the seat of the secretary general.
A son of former provincial minister Lal Bakhsh Bhutto, Bhutto served as provincial minister for Kachi Abadis in the PPP’s last government.
The News reported July 11 that the PPP leadership had shortlisted for the position three leaders – Bhutto, Salman Abdullah Murad and Ghulam Murtaza Baloch. It decided to appoint a leader from the Baloch or the Sindhi community from the city’s rural areas.
Bhutto said the top leadership had handed over him an important duty and he would try his best to perform his responsibilities with the support of the party’s workers. “My priority would be to serve the people of all ethnicities beyond any differences. Also, we will cooperate with the law enforcement agencies in bringing peace to the city,” Bhutto said.
Similarly, the party has replaced Javed Nagori, a parliamentarian elected from Lyari and currently working as a provincial minister, as District South’s secretary general with Karamullah Waqasi.
Waqasi was serving as president for PS-112, a constituency, comprising the neighborhoods of Saddar and Clifton.
However, a number of party leaders have opposed the recent announcements and said certain leaders had demonstrated favouritism, instead of consulting the party’s basic workers.
“Certain elderly leaders sitting in the Chief Minister House are behind the appointment of Bhutto for this slot because they have friendship with his father, Lal Bukhsh Bhutto,” said a PPP’s former divisional leader on Thursday.
Even, in his own district, PPP leaders have risen against him. Haroon Hasan, a leader in District West, said most of the workers were not happy with this decision. “Bhutto could not perform well in his own district. How will he perform the responsibilities of divisional secretary general?” he questioned. Leaders and workers from Lyari have strongly opposed the removal of Nagori from his office and termed it a conspiracy against the neighbourhood.
Background interviews with PPP leaders suggest that Nagori accepted the position of the district’s secretary general when the security situation was in its worst state in Lyari and no one was even ready to take over office at the union council level.
Aslam Samoo, the party president for PS-108, said Nagori was replaced for raising voice against the injustices with party workers and residents of Lyari. “Nagori has lost his brother in his efforts to bring peace to the area,” Samoo said.
Akbar Nagori, brother of Javed Nagori, was killed in a hand grenade attack at his office in the Khada Market area of Lyari in early May.
Last week, Nagori took an aggressive stance against Alam over the allotment of local government polls’ tickets in Lyari.
A PPP leader privy to the development told The News that to regain Lyari’s Kutchi community’s support, the party leadership had recently allotted tickets for the local government elections to several candidates belonging to the community.
“There is much resistance from the South district office-bearers, especially from Nagori, but the party has still decided to distribute tickets in a way that accommodates all ethnicities and clans in Lyari,” he added.
Abu Bakr Baloch, a veteran journalist, said the PPP’s announcements had created fissures within the party and would badly affect it in the local government polls. “The PPP has traditionally been strong in Lyari since its inception. But in the recent years, especially after gang violence in the neighborhood, the party has lost its popularity because of its failure to bring peace to the area, bad governance and its internal rifts,” he told The News.