PTI member from Karachi Sardar Abdul Aziz jumps ship to join PPP

• Several PTI members from Karachi, including Sardar Abdul Aziz, join PPP.
• Ghani welcomes them; promises a big comeback for PPP in next elections.
• Aziz says no self-interest behind move; members only wish to serve the people of Karachi and PTI Karachi was "destroyed" by "insensitive, useless" people.

Several PTI members from Karachi, including former general secretary Sardar Abdul Aziz, have bid farewell to their party and joined PPP.

According to Sindh Minister for Education and Labour Saeed Ghani, Aziz, along with several other PTI members, announced their desire to join PPP.

"#WelcomeToPPPFamily," he wrote in a message on Twitter to welcome them.

Earlier, in a press conference, Ghani said that the results of the work that the PPP has started in Karachi "are before you".

"We have won the by-election in Karachi and increased our vote bank," he said.

"We have won more votes than ever before in the by-elections," said the minister.

Referring to the former PTI members with him, he said that they "want to serve the people of Karachi".

"We will reach out to more political activists through these friends of ours," Ghani said, also sharing PPP's vision of further strengthening its position in the city.

"PPP will emerge as a big party from Karachi in local body and general elections."

'We cannot follow in MQM's footsteps'

Ghani sought to assert that the PPP will not be following in the footsteps of MQM, which had a hold on the city for decades.

"We cannot follow MQM in the massacre and unrest [it perpetuated]."

The minister said that from the areas where MQM used to get 80,000 votes, it most recently got only 5,000 votes. "MQM should look within after such humiliation."

Ghani said that MQM has set up encroachments on parks, roads and drains.

"The record rooms of the courts are full of MQM's deeds," he said, adding: "The chief justice is right in saying Karachi has seen much land-grabbing."

The minister said that once land is occupied and houses built, "it is not easy to tear them down".

"No political government can displace thousands."

Speaking of the recent anti-encroachment action in Aladin Park, where a mall has been ordered by the Supreme Court to be taken down, he said that the shopkeepers must be given time to settle their affairs first.

"The resettlement plan should be made first and then this should be done. If things are rushed, tragedy arises," he said.

'Useless people destroyed PTI'

Addressing the briefing, Sardar Aziz said that there is no self-interest in the minds of PTI members who have joined PPP and that they only wish to serve the people.

"In the last 12 years, we had no self-interest in mind when we were in PTI," he said.

Sardar Aziz said that it was "insensitive and useless people" who  "destroyed PTI in Karachi".

"PTI is limited to four or five people," he said.