Among coalition partners : Maqbool Shaikh quits PML-Q, joins PPP

KARACHI: Former provincial leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Maqbool Ahmed Shaikh has joined Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Sunday. Shaikh announced joining PPP in a meeting with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Federal Minister Syed Khursheed Shah and MNA Faryal Talpur at his residence. The PPP leadership welcomed Shaikh to the party fold and said that the unprecedented efforts of President Asif Ali Zardari and his policy of reconciliation has enhanced party’s fame across the country, adding that more and more people want to join the PPP. “The present government has done in five years, what has not happened in last 60 years,” said Khursheed Shah. He said that upcoming elections would be held on May 9 but the final date would be announced soon. Talpur said that doors in politics are always open. She said that her party was the largest democratic party of the country. She also claimed that several political figures wanted to join the PPP.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2013.