Daily Times

KARACHI: After a meeting with Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) President Asif Zardari on Friday, Sarwari Jamaat Chief Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman decided not to end the Jamaat’s 51 year old affiliation with PPP.

PPP leadership agreed to adjust as many as eight Sarwari Jamaat’s sympathiser candidates by allotting party tickets to them for the upcoming elections.

Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman, on Friday called on Asif Ali Zardari at Karachi’s Bilawal House for a one-to-one meeting.

“The meeting remained fruitful. During the meeting, Makhdoom Jamil asked the PPP to allot 15 tickets for National and Sindh Assembly to sympathizers of the Sarwari Jammat . Negotiations were successful after the PPP leadership assured Makhdoom that they would accommodate Jamaat’s sympathizers on priority basis,” a party insider told Daily Times under the condition of anonymity.

“PPP leadership also agreed to allot eight party tickets for National and Sindh Assembly to Sarwari Jamaat’s sympathizer candidates for the upcoming general elections,” he added.

According to the sources, the PPP leadership also agreed to take Makhdoom family onboard while allotting partys tickets for Matiari district – the home district of Makhdooms.

Makhdoom Jamiluz Zaman is sajjadah nasheen (caretaker) of the Ghousul Haq Makhdoom Sarwar Nooh shrine, better known as the ‘Sarwari Jamaat’. The Makhdoom family, which is supported by its Sarwari Jamaat, bagged one National Assembly and three Sindh Assembly seats in the last general elections.

The important meeting was called at a time when Makhdoom Jamil, who had been dissatisfied with the PPP in the recent past, began exploring options to field candidates against the party in the upcoming general election. The family was said to have developed differences with the PPP over a number of issues but they were resolved to a major extent during the Friday meeting.

Makhdoom Jamil despite being Sindh’s Minister for revenue during the outgoing cabinet, had little or no power. He had also reportedly complained to the party leadership several times but nothing had changed.

Makhdoom of Hala, had also recently held meetings with leadership of Sindh’s two other parties including the Pagara-led Hurr Jamaat and Ghousia Jamaat which is led by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Shah Mehmood Qureshi to discuss the formation of an electoral alliance against the PPP.

During meetings, three parties had also discussed various ways in which they could support each other’s candidates in Matiari, Sanghar, Tharparkar, Umerkot and Khairpur districts of Sindh. The three parties have a sizeable spiritual following in Sindh.

According to the sources, Makhdoom Jamil had also informally asked his followers to remain on ‘standby’ and gear up for polls against the PPP in case of electoral alliance with Hurr Jamaat and Ghousia Jamaat.

In this connection, Makhdoom Jamil had convened a meeting of Jamaat’s elders on Friday at the Makhdoom House, Hala, to finalise their strategy for July 25 general elections. However, according to Jamaat’s sources, the meeting had been postponed.

Published in Daily Times, June 3^rd 2018.