Political rumour mill: PPP, PML-F attempt to woo Ghous Ali Shah to their side

PML-N’s Sindh Chief tenders his resignation, leading people to believe he is parting ways.


Hafeez Tunio September 07, 2013
Political rumour mill: PPP, PML-F attempt to woo Ghous Ali Shah to their side. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI:


Soon after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s stalwart Ghous Ali Shah resigned from his post as the party’s Sindh chief, Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional started coming up with strategies to bring him into their fold, The Express Tribune has learnt.   


Ghous’ resignation, which was submitted a few days back, has not been accepted officially by PML-N’s top leadership. He is currently visiting Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.

Using the Khairpur connection

According to sources, Sindh Chief Minster Qaim Ali Shah has been given the task to woo Ghous into joining the PPP. “Qaim Ali Shah and Ghous Ali Shah belong to Khairpur and are childhood friends. They started their education and practiced law in the same city,” said Shabir Shar, a senior advocate of the Singh High Court who practices in Khairpur. “There was a time when they were considered best friends.” Both men have much in common - they’ve both served as Sindh chief minister, provincial chiefs for their parties, and were among the best football players in their area. They’ve also faced each other in elections, with Qaim Ali Shah claiming the most recent victory on May 11.

Tapping into old ties

Meanwhile, leaders of PML-F have also reportedly contacted Ghous Ali Shah’s trusted men in Sindh to find out his plans. It was the late Pir Pagara who had nominated Ghous as the chief minister for the first time in 1985, telling General Ziaul Haq, “Muhammad Khan Junejo and Ghous Ali Shah are my trusted lieutenants. Junejo will be the best option for premiership and we want to appoint Ghous as the Sindh chief minister.”

Ghous, however, parted ways with Pagara and joined the Sharif brothers in the 1990s. Since then, he has stayed true to PML-N. When General Pervez Musharraf toppled PML-N’s government in 1999, Ghous was working as the advisor to the prime minister of Pakistan on the affairs of Sindh. During that time, he also left the country in self-imposed exile.

Split loyalties

Following is resignation, office bearers of PML-N in Sindh have started showing an inclination to follow Ghous with more than 200 leaders of the party in Khairpur, Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad resigning from their positions.

Reports have surfaced that Ghous resigned because of the attitude of his party’s leadership.  “Shah was initially an aspirant for the office of President of Pakistan but the party nominated Mamnoon Hussain for the position and asked him to wait for the post of Sindh governor,” said a senior member of PML-N. “Later, the party offered yet another idea of electing Ghous as senator which irked him and he resigned from the party.” Another report suggests that Ghous resigned because certain influential party leaders in Sindh were not in favour of Ghous retaining the post of provincial chief.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, who recently merged his Sindh National Front with PML-N, said that the resignation has yet to be accepted by the party’s leadership. “We recently held a meeting with Nawaz Sharif in which we discussed law and order in Karachi as well as Ghous’ resignation. I hope he will return soon and resume his responsibility,” he said.

PML-N’s senior member in Sindh, Shah Muhammad Shah, refuted the notion of Ghous leaving the party. “He [Ghous Ali Shah] is an old guard of PML-N. He has resigned from the post of provincial party chief but will continue to be a senior member of the party,” he said, adding that Ghous might have resigned because of PML-N’s failure in the May 11 general election. “I think Ghous has set a new precedent by acknowledging through his resignation that the party did not yield good results [in the elections] under his leadership.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2013. 

COMMENTS (5)

Adnan Siddiqi | 10 years ago | Reply

@Fed Up:

Point well taken! You would have to understand though that Ghous Ali Shah was the Chapter Head of Sindh and was assigned some critical tasks for May 11th elections. Unfortunately he didn't exactly ace with flying colors in Sindh and hence was sidelined. I am sure that had he bagged the desired results, he would have been duly rewarded.

Ahmed | 10 years ago | Reply

@Adnan Siddiqi. Ghous is a skilled lawyer and political administrator. He lost the 2013 general elections due to massive rigging in Sindh by PPP which everyone is aware of. PMLN didn't make Ghous CM in 1997 when he won both seats from Sindh but had to bring him back as de facto CM because they couldn't control Sindh even then. Maulana Fazl ur Rehman even said that Ghous is the only man in the country who can control Sindh as he is a skilled administrator and uses his knowledge of the law. He is an expert in the country's defence affairs as well as the affairs of the province of Sindh. You should find out more about him before writing things like this. He also bridged the gap between PPP and PMLN in 2000s and met Benazir Bhutto as she refused to negotiate with anyone else from PMLN which resulted in signing Charter of Democracy.

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