Qadir Baloch, Zehri to join PPP months after quitting PML-N

(Karachi) Former Balochistan chief minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri and former federal minister Abdul Qadir Baloch, who parted ways with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) last year, have decided to join the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) along with their supporters.

Announcing the decision during a meeting the other day, Qadir Baloch said: “We have consulted our people and like-minded political and tribal friends and with their consent decided to join the PPP on the invitation of the party leadership.”

Speaking through video link, Nawab Zehri said: “We do not take decisions in closed drawing rooms. We take decisions after consulting our people and link-minded friends.”

Nawab Zehri had served as the PML-N’s Balochistan chapter president and had quit the party after the PML-N leadership decided not to invite him in the PDM public meeting due to his differences with Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

Similarly, Abdul Qadir Baloch left the PML-N while opposing the narrative of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz against the army chief and armed forces.

Last year, both Qadir Baloch and Zehri decided to quit the PML-N along with other colleagues and announced their resignation from the party.

Reportedly, Qadir had expressed anger over PML-N leaders' remarks against the state institutions and for not inviting Zehri to the PDM’s Quetta public meeting at the behest of Balochistan National Party-Mengal President Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

Sardar Mengal stated that he had asked the PML-N leadership not to invite Zehri to the PDM’s public meeting due to a tribal feud with him, as cases were registered against him and his brother in the murder case of Nawab Amanullah Zarakzai.

Zehri had resigned from the post of the chief minister against the advice of the party’s supreme leader Nawaz Sharif when a no-confidence motion had been moved against him in the Balochistan Assembly.