Ex-MNA re-joins PML-N in Haripur

HARIPUR: Former Member National Assembly Sardar Mushtaq Khan has rejoined the Pakistan Muslim Nawaz (PML-N) unconditionally after remaining estranged from it for more than six years.

Over 60 supporters of Mushtaq, most of them councillors and village councils’ nazims, were among those who announced their joining the PML-N at a public gathering held in Kotnajibullah here.

Sardar Mushtaq, who has been among staunch supporters of Nawaz Sharif, joined the party during the early 1990s and remained MPA twice. He won election on the PML-N’s ticket from NA-17 Haripur during 2008, bagging the highest number of votes in the country.

However, before the 2013 elections, he parted ways with the party and announced joining the Pakistan People’s Party at a public meeting that the PPP’s former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf addressed in Mushtaq’s native Kotnajibullah village. However, he opted to contest as independent candidate and lost to Dr Raja Amir Zaman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

PML-N provincial president Engineer Amir Muqam, Senator Pir Sabir Shah, former federal minister and MPA Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, former deputy speaker NA Murtaza Javed Abbasi, former MNA Babar Nawaz, former MPA Raja Faisal Zaman, and former KP speaker Habibullah Tareen were prominent among those present on the occasion.

Speaking to the participants, Sardar Mushtaq said that he had always been loyal to the party but during the 2013 elections, he parted ways with the PML-N leadership over some issue. However, he announced that he would remain loyal to the party unconditionally till the last breath and said he believed that the PML-N had the vision of putting the country on the path to progress.

He accused the PTI government of leading the country to an economic collapse and rendering hundreds of thousands of people jobless. PML-N provincial president Amir Muqam alleged that the PTI leaders were not loyal to the sovereignty of Pakistan, which was visible from their policy on Kashmir. He believed 2020 was the year of fresh elections. Amir Muqam urged the party workers to work hard for strengthening the party at the grassroots.