Unforgiving president: Zardari spurns ex-PPP Musharraf cronies

The president unlikely to accept close to two dozen leading politicians who switched loyalties to Musharraf in 2002.

ISLAMABAD:

Chief of his own faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif may be willing to accept leaders from Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) who were loyal to former president Pervez Musharraf, but President Asif Ali Zardari has not proved to be so forgiving.

President Zardari is unlikely to accept within the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) folds close to two dozen leading politicians who had switched loyalties to the former military dictator in the 2002 general elections, his associates said.

“Having the dissidents back in the PPP doesn’t seem possible. Zardari Sahib is not interested in them,” said a party official on Sunday.

Sharif, who is the head of the main opposition, was specifically asked at a news conference in Lahore about the possibility of having PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and his associates back in his party.

The PML-Q later helped Musharraf get elected as president from the assemblies.

Almost two dozen PPP leaders also jumped onto Musharraf’s bandwagon after the 2002 polls, hoping to avoid court cases against former PPP leader and premier Benazir Bhutto, who was also in exile at the time.

Former ministers Sher Afghan Khan Niazi, Raza Hayat Hiraj, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Aftab Khan Sherpao and Rao Sikandar Iqbal were prominent among those who formed what they named the Patriot faction of the PPP.

They later merged their group with the Chaudhrys’ party when Musharraf ‘unified’ all his supporters in one party.

Most of these Patriots are still considered to have strong political leverage with strong chances of winning elections because they do not need affiliation with any party to convince voters. In most cases, their voters are in rural and semi-urban constituencies.

Individuals close to President Zardari said no efforts were being made on any level to lure them back into the PPP, although the party is desperately looking for candidates who can ensure victory in the upcoming general elections – which are scheduled for early 2013 but might be held later this year.

When contacted, PPP spokesperson MNA Qamar Zaman Kaira remained vague, saying the doors of the party were open for anybody who wanted to join or rejoin.

But when pressed as to whether the party would not hesitate to accept Patriots, he said: “Well, about this particular thing, I won’t say anything. I will have to contact the leadership of my party.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2012.