Khawaja Asif hints 'seat adjustment' with Tareen's new party

A day after senior politician Jahangir Khan Tareen launched his own political party, Defence Minister Khwaja Asif Friday said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has no threat from his party — Istehkam-e-Pakistan.

“Seat adjustment can be done with Jahangir Tareen’s party,” the minister said, while speaking with journalists in Islamabad.

Asif also said that the general elections in the country will be held on time.

A day earlier, Tareen officially announced his new political party. “We are laying a foundation of a new political party — Istihkam-e-Pakistan Party,” he said, addressing a news conference flanked by former PTI leaders including Aleem Khan, Imran Ismail and others.

The influential politician from Southern Punjab, who is a former close aide of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and played a major in the party's formation, said that he joined politics to play his role for the betterment of the country.

“We have gathered at one platform to make joint efforts to lift the country out of this quagmire,” he said, adding that the country needed a political leadership which could resolve all prevailing issues including social, economic and others.

Meanwhile, Asif, while commenting on the government’s economic targets, said: “The failure to achieve economic goals does not mean that the government is a failure.”

He added that his party saved the state by sacrificing politics. “We stood like a barrier against economic collapse.”

On the other hand, PML-N leader and a close aide of party supremo Nawaz Sharif, Senator Dr Asif Kirmani, took to Twitter and termed the Tareen-led party as a gathering of "capitalists and industrialist feudals".

“The nation has no hope of stability from those who caused instability in Pakistan,” the senior politician tweeted.

PTI rejects IPP

PTI said that launching new parties comprising leaders that have united as a result of "forced divorces" was not the solution to the prevailing crises in the country.

Rejecting the the IPP, launched by estranged PTI leader Tareen, the former ruling party wrote on Twitter: "Launching new parties full of people that are coming after forced divorces is not the solution to the problems Pakistan faces."

The PTI reiterated the need for fresh, free and fair elections, saying that the people of Pakistan should be allowed to choose their representatives.

Tareen's party is comprised of politicians who had left the PTI during the ongoing mass exodus with many claiming to leave the party and bidding adieu to politics.

The notable names include Fawad Chaudhry, Ali Zaidi, Mahmood Baqi Maulvi, Imran Ismail, Firdous Ashiq Awa, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, Fayaz ul Hassan Chohan and Murad Raas.