LARKANA: A staunch loyalist of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Wednesday openly expressed his disgruntlement against the party after serving it for 40 years, and announced to support Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI) candidates for the upcoming general elections. Reportedly, Muhammad Hashim Bhutto addressed the media at a local press club while accompanied by the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) candidate for the provincial assembly seat PS-11 Moazim Ali Abbasi and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) candidate for NA-200 Rashid Mahmood Soomro. ‘Disheartened’ Bhutto asserted that PPP’s district president of Larkana Abdul Fatah Bhutto constantly neglected him, and said that the party’s activists suffered severe hardships after the martyrdom of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. “Egocentric and self-confessed charlatans were given more preference than the loyalists,” he said while maintaining that their concerns were never addressed. Meanwhile, Abbasi claimed that Bhutto has joined LAI without any pressure or external influence, and said that PPP did not value ideological activists. Furthermore, the union committee-4 Ward No.2 councilor Ghulam Muhammad Wagan also abandoned PPP and joined LAI. Contrarily, Sindh PPP president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro denounced the accusations as “a conspiracy to divide Sindh’. “To me, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and GDA have been working on the same agenda, and their motive is as clear as daylight,” he said while addressing various corner meetings in Larkana, and added that the new administrative units in Sindh were clearly supported by the Pakistan Muslim League- Functional (PML-F) leader Sadaruddin Shah Rashdi. Later, Khuhro’s daughter and PPP candidate for PS-11 Nida Khuhro visited the shrine of Hussain Shah Bukhari in Kambar and sought his blessings. Published in Daily Times, July 19th 2018.