Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Naz Baloch on Sunday announced her joining of the PPP, alleging that the PTI's focus is centered on Punjab and not Sindh. Baloch, the daughter of prominent PPP leader Abdullah Baloch, made the announcement at a press conference in the metropolis alongside PPP's Faryal Talpur and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.
"As a daughter and representative of Sindh, I feel that the PTI's focus is centered on Punjab", she asserted. "I performed my responsibilities in PTI under the leadership of Imran Khan. This is no secret". "I don't wish to defame a party with whom I have had a good run," she said. "But the PTI, which is called championed of the youth and for a change, has, itself, changed. This is not the dawn we wished to see."
"When Imran Khan comes to Karachi for his five or six-hour-long visits, he is kept away from party workers. This is done by the Karachi party leadership, and I raised my voice about it prominently while I was with PTI," she added. "The ideological worker is disappointed because today, the people standing to Imran Khan's left and right are neither the youth, nor do any of them speak up for Sindh".
In addition to the PTI being unable to deliver on its promise of representing the youth, the party is also sidelining its female members, alleged Baloch. "I have made complaints about what I feel is male chauvinism in the party; only men are present when it is time to make decisions. Women do not have the same access or representation in the decision-making committee", she said.
"Faryal Talpur has given the women of PPP respect, brought them into the decision-making process and kept them in the loop." She requested Imran Khan to listen to the complaints of disgruntled workers "so that what is left of the party in Sindh remains intact." The party's organisational structure in Karachi and Sindh has been damaged, as it appears that the PTI is playing musical chairs with only four people who have been consistently appointed president of Karachi and Sindh on a rotation basis, she said.
Her journey with the PPP aims to take forward the ideology of Benazir Bhutto. "Bilawal Bhutto is truly representing the youth. He has made big sacrifices after his mother's death. And if he has returned to represent the people, then we should support him in his campaign and his struggle for Pakistan, and stand by him" she said.