Infighting mars PML-N election preparation

Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor says he 'cannot support a leader who rubs shoulders with Narendra Modi'

LAHORE: With its arch rival Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf already having kicked off its election campaign, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) seems to have mired in infighting.

Disgruntled Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor Mayo parted ways with the party, saying he cannot support the party’s anti-state and anti-Islamic agenda.

While addressing a news conference to renounce his support for the party, he furthered the allegations of sale, purchase of party tickets levelled by another former provincial minster Zaeem Qadri earlier this week.

Ghafoor told The Express Tribune that he was a coward to not to have left the PML-N before.



The former minister said that he wanted to leave the party after the Model Town carnage but he was pressurised by his colleagues to reconsider his decision.

He said his Mayo community has 15 million votes in the country and none would go to vote for the PML-N in the upcoming elections.

He during his news conference said that he was renouncing his 28 year-long party affiliation for not himself but for his religion and his country.

He said getting a party ticket was not his problem because “I am not contesting the elections anyway”.

He said, “How can I continue supporting a party that is trying to build bridges with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and our arch-rival India; a party that is trying to weaken the country’s institutions, a party that commits blasphemy.”



Ghafoor said, “Our party sold its tickets, sending only deaf and dumb to national and provincial assemblies.”

He alleged that the governorship under the PML-N was on sale. The former provincial minister said the party had brought land-grabbers, thugs, criminals and corrupts to the assemblies.

Ghafoor said he repeatedly warned the party to avoid all this. “The party leadership gains sympathy for being sent into exile by former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf and even cashes in on the 1999 coup.”

“But, who made Gen Musharraf the COAS, breaking the order of the hierarchy?” he asked.

He revealed that a member of the Sharif family was in continuous contact with Musharraf. “If Musharraf and his regime were so bad, then what was the need to induct all his cabinet colleagues into the PML-N government?”

“I want to tell Hamza and Shehbaz Sharif: Pakistan is not their father’s fiefdom; Pakistan is not the Sharif family’s property.”

He said the PML-N leaders were tyrants who have destroyed all state institutions of the country. “In democracy, institutions are strengthened – and not weakened.”

It is pertinent to mention here that the PML-N was facing tough time in rural constituencies over the election reforms bills, for taking a hard line against state institutions and for trying to develop cordial relation with Narendra Modi.

Former MPA Nizamuddin Sialvi had earlier this year parted ways with the PML-N due to controversy surrounding the amended nomination forms for general elections.

Whereas several contesting MPA’s from the PML-N have revealed that the above-mentioned ‘mistakes’ of PML-N will adversely affect their election campaigns.

The PML-N also faces trouble from a provincial assembly constituency of Faisalabad, where party workers have protested over not awarding ticket to Sheikh Waqas.

Similarly, party workers have also protested against former minister Bilal Yasin and demanded of the party to not give him party ticket.