Switching loyalties: PML-Q losing its grip on Hazara division
As the countrywide spree of joining the former cricketer Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) continues to attract politicians, the PML-Q appears to be losing its grip in Hazara.
Several PML-Q leaders have already announced their decision to join the PTI, while several other key members are expected to join Khan within the next few weeks.
Raja Amir Zaman, a former district nazim from the PML-Q, who obtained over 97,000 votes in the 2008 election and former provincial minister Yousaf Ayub Khan have joined the PTI after quitting the PML-N.
Yousaf has been active in the cause of Hazara province. Meanwhile, it has also been learnt that former state minister Omar Ayub Khan and his father Gohar Ayub Khan, who was a former national assembly speaker of PML-N, are also in touch with Khan and are expected to join the PTI if the PML-N refuses to take them in.
Sources said certain political figures rejected by their respective parties, are also expected to choose the PTI.
According to sources, the motive behind the politicians’ departure from PML-Q is the central leadership’s weak stance on Hazara province. They were led to believe that the PML-Q had joined the coalition government to pursue the cause for a Hazara province.
However, the party has failed to fulfil its promises, which has sparked a sense of betrayal among politicians. The renaming of the North West Frontier Province was the worst blow for the PML-N in Hazara, but its popularity has remained intact nevertheless.
The PML-Q, however, which was expected to sweep the next election owing to its support for provincial status, has been discredited. Local leaders were forced to revisit their political stratagems to get to parliament in the next election to maintain their standing among constituents.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2011.
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Imran Khan will be addressing Pakistanis from Hazara for change on 15 in Khanpur & 17 in Ghazi.
This article explains the change of wind for political mind sets but its a reality that the students from Hazara have always stood with maximum support for Imran Khan & we hope that tsunami of change enters via the gateway of Hazara with in this week as well.
Regards, Mr. Ehsen Naveed ISF Founder Hazara & Coordinator 2011
This is called power politics. Politicians has 20-30000 votes of their own, then they analyze that which party is popular and able to get me further 30-40000 votes so I may win. Their loyalties are connected to the popularity.