PM advised to restrict Mamnoon’s role in Sindh’s party politics

Ruling party decides not to make political alliance for upcoming LG polls

ISLAMABAD: As the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz fine-tunes its strategy for the upcoming local government elections in Sindh, the party’s provincial leadership has advised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is also president of the ruling party, to restrict the role of President Mamnoon Hussain in the province, The Express Tribune has learnt from sources.

Premier Nawaz on Tuesday presided over a three-hour-long brainstorming session with the party’s leaders from Sindh and took major decisions regarding the LG elections. Most participants have requested the prime minister to ask President Mamnoon to stay away from party politics in Sindh, particularly from the process of awarding party tickets for the LG elections, sources said.

The meeting was convened to share with the prime minister the party’s problems in Sindh and to chalk out a strategy for the LG elections. According to sources, PML-N’s Sindh chapter is divided into two major factions – one led by veteran PML-N leader Zain Ansari and the other by the party’s provincial president Ismail Raho.

The two factions candidly voiced their problems with the prime minister. They said a delay in resolution of these problems could adversely affect the party’s performance in the LG elections. The prime minister assured them that party tickets for the LG elections would be awarded only by the party’s parliamentary board.

Major decisions

The meeting participants decided that the PML-N would contest the LG election without making an alliance with any group. The decision was taken after the party leadership told the prime minister that the party performed abysmally in Sindh in the 2013 general election due to its political alliances.

The prime minister also formed an 11-member party parliamentary board, headed by Ismail Raho, for awarding party tickets for the LG election. He also convened another meeting of his party’s leaders from Sindh within two weeks where he will finalise party tickets before issuing them to various candidates.

Meanwhile sources said President Mamnoon has also appointed Chuadhry Tariq as his coordinator who has started contacting people for party tickets. Tariq also attended Tuesday’s meeting with the prime minister and the party’s senior leadership protested over his presence.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th,  2015.