Lahore (Staff Report): In another blow to the embattled Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) as many as eight legislators including six MNAs and two MPAs on Monday announced for leaving the party to advocate the cause of South Punjab.
Addressing a press conference along with his fellows, Khusro Bakhtiar expressed that there was a need for new provinces to decentralise power and authority.
Bakhtiar, who hails from Rahim Yar Khan and had won the 2013 elections from NA-194, mentioned that the aim of the group was to create South Punjab province and it would be headed by Balkh Shair Mazari.
Besides Khusro Bakhtiar, Balkh Shair Mazari, Tahir Bashir Cheema, Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, Salim Ullah Chaudhry, Sardar Dareshak, Basit Bukhari and Tahir Iqbal also decided to tender resignation.
Khusro Bakhtiar claimed that they were relinquishing their positions for the establishment of a new province decrying that the rate of poverty in South Punjab was as high as 51 percent.
The deserted legislators claimed that South Punjab was being ignored, demanding – in one breath – that a new province was their ultimate objective.
Meanwhile, disgruntled Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is likely to join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
According to sources, Nisar is in contact with PTI leaders through backdoor channels and more than one meeting has been held in this regard, adding that the former interior minister will soon meet PTI chairman Imran Khan and will announce to join his party.
Earlier, in press conference, Ch Nisar had announced to contest 2018 general elections from NA 59 on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ticket. Nisar said that he had advised Nawaz Sharif not to confront with the state institutions.
Responding to questions about his disagreements with party leadership, Nisar said that he believes in discussing his problems within the party, adding that there was no forward bloc in the party.
He recalled his political beginning and said that he set on this journey in 1985 from NA-140 constituency and that the constituency was maintained from then till 2002. It was divided into two constituencies in 2002 as a conspiracy to keep him from winning, Nisar claimed.