Liaqat Khattak says he is loyal to PTI

NOWSHERA: Former irrigation minister Liaqat Khattak on Monday said he would remain associated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and asserted that there was no forward bloc in the party.

He was sacked after the PTI candidate, Mian Umar Kakakhel, lost the PK-63 seat in the recent by-election in Nowshera to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate Ikhtiar Wali Khan. Speaking at a press conference here, he said that Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak was his elder brother and he respected him.

He said that he would vote for the PTI candidates in the Senate election. About Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Peshawar to meet party legislators in connection with the Senate election, he said that he was not invited to the meeting.

Liaqat Khattak said he had been a powerless minister as unelected people were running his department. He said that he had been sidelined for a long time and he had informed the chief minister about his reservations and wanted to meet the prime minister.

Liaqat Khattak maintained that he was a worker of the PTI and it was his right to have a difference of opinion and nobody could deprive him of his right to speak his mind. “Imran Khan is my leader and I will obey his any order,” he added.