Imran Khan says fully backs Usman Buzdar as Punjab CM nominee

ISLAMABAD: Rejecting all the criticism, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that he fully backs Usman Buzdar as his party’s candidate for Punjab chief ministership, ARY News reported.

In a tweet posted on his account after formally taking over as PM, Imran Khan said that this is the first time Punjab will have a CM from such a neglected area “who is acutely aware of what has to be done there”.

“I fully back him all the way,” added the PM and PTI chief.

Earlier in the day, he said that he wants to “make it clear” that he stands Usman Buzdar for CM Punjab.

“I have done my due diligence over the past two weeks & have found him to be an honest man. He has integrity & stands by my vision and ideology of Naya Pakistan,” Imran Khan had said.

It is pertinent to note here that soon after Imran Khan nominated Usman Buzdar as his party’s candidate for Punjab CM slot, a background check revealed that the South Punjab politician had two cases registered against him, one of which is reportedly under investigation.

https://arynews.tv/en/usman-buzdar-cases-murder-punjab/

Buzdar, who hails from Dera Ghazi Khan area of South Punjab was nominated in a 1998 murder case in which he paid diyat (blood money) to reach compromise with the victims’ heirs.

The verdict in the case was announced by an anti-terrorism court in Dera Ghazi Khan on January 1, 2000.

The PTI’s nominee for Punjab CM, who once served as nazim was also accused of making 300 bogus appointments during his tenure as nazim during Musharraf era, a charge PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry denies.

The party’s toughest opponent in Punjab Assembly, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), on the other hand, has nominated former CM Punjab’s son Hamza Shehbaz Sharif as candidate for the slot.