Another PTI leader jumps ship over May 9 protests

ISLAMABAD: Another Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, Malik Amin Aslam, has announced to quit the party following countrywide May 9 violent protests after party chairman Imran Khan’s arrest, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Addressing a press conference, Malik Amin Aslam, a former minister for climate change, condemned May 9 events – which includes the attack on military and civil installations.

He said that the party had set out on a “destructive” path and that’s why he had decided to leave PTI. Aslam added that there was no “pressure” on him.

Amin Aslam’s decision to quit the party came a day after Amir Mahmood Kiyani Kiani, a former federal minister and PTI’s additional secretary general, left party over May 9 protests.

Earlier, Mahmood Baqi Moulvi, a senior PTI member and a member of the National Assembly from Karachi, left the party over a “difference of opinion” and said he would also resign from the NA seat.

Two more PTI MPAs from Sindh, Sanjay Gangwani and Kareem Bux Gabol, had left the party following the ‘attack on military’s General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and Corps Commander House Lahore’.

In a statement, Sanjay Gangwani said that he was also quitting politics while condemning the ‘vandalism of military installations’ on May 9.

Protests

Violent clashes broke out across Pakistan after former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan was arrested from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC) last week.

The protests were held in remote and major cities as the party workers are agitated due to their chairman’s arrest, with Balochistan, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Islamabad summoning the armed forces to ensure law and order.

Army installations and Corps Commander’s house in Lahore came under attack during a protest of PTI workers.