Switching alliances: Sardar Mushtaq ready for another somersault

He is quite upset about switching loyalties as the government failed to honour its promises: Senior PPP member

HARIPUR:

As politicians frog jump from one party to the next, Pakistan Peoples Party’s former MNA from Haripur, Sardar Mushtaq Khan, looks to make that last jump to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, landing right in time for elections.

“He is quite upset about switching loyalties as the government failed to honour its promises,” commented a senior PPP office bearer of the divisional chapter on Sardar Mushtaq Khan’s potential move to the PML-N. “This was a golden chance for the PPP to win the seat it has not won in the last six decades.”

Sardar Mushtaq Khan, himself however, declined to comment.

Khan won the 2008 polls from NA-19 on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) ticket, bagging more than 980,000 votes. He defeated former military dictator Ayub Khan’s grandson, Omar Ayub Khan. However, the “scion of Gujjar” had to sit in the opposition as his party failed to win majority, and was unable to fulfil promises of developing his constituency.

Khan remained loyal to the PML-N for more than 20 years, but PML-N chief Nawaz’s decision to welcome Omar Ayub into the fold pushed him to join the PPP.

It has been reported that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif gave Khan the green signal to return since he was a loyal to Nawaz when others deserted him.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2013.