Interesting alliances brewing for the upcoming elections. I hope things work out between them.
PPP eyes mind-boggling alliance with JI
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party is eyeing to foster a mind-boggling alliance with right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek for the next general polls, The Nation has learnt.
Close aides of the PPP leadership said that the two erstwhile political foes were being convinced to join a PPP-led alliance against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
The Jamaat-e-Islami until now is a partner of the PTI in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but the differences between the two allies have not been any secret.
The JI openly protested against the PTI’s decision last year to bring back Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao’s Qaumi Wattan Party in the coalition.
A senior PPP leader told The Nation, that Asif Ali Zardari was hoping to rope in the right-wing parties in the new alliance to prepare for the 2018 polls. “There have been talks with the JI and the PAT. You will see some unexpected alliance in the near future,” he said.
The PPP leader said that the recent statement of the party chief, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, seeking justice for the Model Town victims was an effort to appease the PAT leader Tahirul Qadri.
“Qadri has once been an ally of the PPP [during Benazir Bhutto’s time] and we are expecting him to once again support us,” he added.
In the recent days, Qadri too has stopped issuing anti-PPP statements as he continues to bash just the PML-N.
The PAT chief argues PM Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif should be punished for the Model Town killings.
JI lawmaker Sahibzada Tariqullah told The Nation that his party was open to talks with any party.
“You can’t rule out such an alliance. There have been contacts like always. In fact, whichever party forms alliance with us will learn discipline. There is a lack of discipline in the bigger parties these days,” he added…