Changing loyalties: The Sherazi family of Thatta joins PML-N

The Sherazis to replace Marvi Memon as PML-N’s face in the district.

LAHORE:

The Sherazis, a well-known political family of Thatta, have joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), indirectly replacing the party’s face in the district, Marvi Memon.

The Sherazi family contested the 2013 elections independently, bagging four of five Sindh Assembly seats and one of two National Assembly seats.

On Saturday, four winning candidates of the Sherazi family – Ayaz Shah Sherazi, Shah Hussain Shah Sherazi, Ejaz Shah Sherazi and Ameed Haider Shah Sherazi – called on PML-N’s Punjab President Shahbaz Sharif at his residence in Lahore, where they joined the party.

Thatta’s former district nazim and head of the Sherazi family Shafqat Shah Sherazi said one of their candidates who won the PS-87 seat Muhammad Ali Malkani has joined the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Shafqat said the other NA seat in the district, claimed by PPP’s Sadiq Memon, was won by cheating. Sadiq Memon, he added, is a dual national and he would soon be disqualified.

Reservations against Owais Muzaffar

Upon joining the PML-N, the Sherazis were assured that the PML-N government would deal with rigging and the unjust actions of MPA-elect Owais Muzaffar– as alleged by the Sherazis.

Shafqat, who won the elections from PS-88, has alleged massive rigging in Thatta. He claimed Owais Muzaffar spent Rs1 billion to buy votes for his seat. The Sherazi family also claimed that Owais Muzaffar was implicating them in fabricated cases.

Shahbaz Sharif, however, said he would deal with the matter himself, and personally ask the Sindh police chief and chief secretary to drop the cases against them. Shahbaz also vowed to launch mega development projects in the province.

Move over, Marvi

The PML-N has handed over all political and development affairs of Thatta district to the Sherazi family, and went as far as assuring the new entrants that Marvi Memon would not be awarded a party ticket in the next general elections. Marvi Memon also contested from NA-238 against the Sherazi family but lost.

The party also assured the Sherazi family that Marvi would not be allowed to campaign or contest the upcoming local government election.

Shahbaz’s statements

Meanwhile, Shahbaz said the PML-N would heal wounds inflicted by President Asif Ali Zardari and former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in the last 13 years.

“We have devised a comprehensive plan to steer national institutions such as PIA, Pakistan Railways and Steel Mills out of crises,” he said in a meeting with several delegations. “The nation needed a leader like Nawaz Sharif and people have now given their mandate in his favour,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2013.