ISLAMABAD: In another desertion in the rank and file of the PPP in Punjab on Friday, party stalwart Imtiaz Safdar Warraich bid adieu to Bhutto’s party and joined the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).
PTI Chairman Imran Khan welcomed Warraich into the party at a press conference at Bani Gala in Islamabad.
Warraich’s switch to the PTI is the fourth major blow to the PPP’s Gujranwala division, home of the party’s central Punjab president Qamar Zaman Kaira.
Within the last one month, party stalwarts Nazar Gondal from Mandi Bahauddin, Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gul from Gujrat and Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan from Sialkot have abandoned the PPP ship. While Gul is yet to join another political party, Gondal and Dr Awan have joined the PTI.
PPP founding member Ghulam Mustafa Khar also joined the PTI in April this year.
Daily Times’ discussion with party insiders reveals that negotiations are well underway between several other electables and the PTI leadership, particularly the party’s newly-elected general secretary Jahangir Tareen, who is widely believed to be ‘spearheading’ PTI’s campaign to attract electables into the PTI’s fold ahead of the next general election.
Leader next in line to jump ship from the Punjab in the coming days is Nadeem Afzal Chan, who is expected to follow in the footsteps of his associate from Mandi Bahauddin, Nazar Muhammad Gondal.
However, one PPP leader who has failed to make an impression on the PTI leadership is PPP’s former Punjab president Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo.
