The PPP under its new Provincial President Anwar Saifullah Khan is aggressively gearing up for the upcoming general elections by inducting new or former members. Recently, former provincial finance minister Iftikhar Khan Mohmand and a disgruntled PML-N lawmaker Shazia Aurangzeb joined the party.
PPP’s Deputy Spokesperson Gohar Inqilabi confirmed the potential inductees. Orakzai will announce her decision from her residence on Kohat Road at around 10:30am, while Jhagra will make a similar declaration from his village in the afternoon.
Currenlty, Orakzai serves as the PML-Q’s provincial spokesperson. Even though she has not publically acknowledged her intention of joining the PPP, she said that she is parting ways with the PML-Q and is in contact with the Qaumi Watan Party, PPP and the Awami National Party (ANP), among others. She said she will join the party that treats men and women equally as political workers.
PML-Q’s provincial leaders were discriminating against her for being a woman, she said, adding that no attention was given to her complaints after she notified the party’s president, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
While she claims to have no grudges against the Chaudhry brothers, she is parting ways due to a lack of checks and balances as well as the apathy of the central leadership.
Jhagra will rejoin the PPP after he resigned from its central executive committee and went to the PTI a year back. Sources close to Jhagra said that another PTI leader from Nowshera, Syed Iftikhar Shah, will also join the PPP.
Shah had contested the 2008 elections for the provincial assembly from Nowshera (PK-12) on a PPP ticket and secured third position by winning 8,835 votes. Later, he joined the PTI.
PPP sources hinted that more prominent political figures will join the ruling party in days to come.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 4th, 2012
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