Nisar may soon join PTI: reports

ISLAMABAD: Former interior minister and disgruntled Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Chaudhary Nisar is considering to join Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), reports claim.

According to reports, the ex-PML-N stalwart may announce his decision sometime later this month. It is reported that Nisar held couple of meetings with the PTI leaders of late, though details of the meeting were not made public by either of the sides.

Read: Nisar says can’t accept Maryam as his leader

For more than couple of times, Imran Khan has asked Nisar to join his party, In February as well, the PTI chairman had invited the former interior minister to join his party’s fold.

“It would be better if Nisar joins Tehreek-e-Insaf,” Imran said in an interview. He also vowed his support to the former interior minister even he chose to contest the next election as an independent candidate. “At times, one has to have a bigger heart in politics,” he added.

On Saturday (April 7), PML-N MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), citing strong reservations over recent ‘controversial statements and the politics’ of deposed premier Nawaz Sharif.

He strongly rebuked Sharif’s statements against state institutions and said PML-N’s current politics was only limited to defending beleaguered Sharif instead of focusing on the betterment of the country.

Kumar also advised Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan to join the PTI and predicted that more PML-N MPs would join the Khan’s party in the coming days.

Last week, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif met with displeased Nisar at the CM House and discussed the key differences and tried to hash out the matter.

Reports claimed that Shahbaz tried to address Nisar’s reservations during the three-and-a-half hour long meeting. “I do not agree with Nawaz Sharif’s narrative at all,” Nisar reportedly said at a meeting.

The former interior minister has been critical of PML-N’s ‘supreme leader’ Nawaz Sharif over the latter’s anti-judiciary and anti-establishment tirade, and opted not to join the current cabinet of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi after Nawaz was disqualified by the Supreme Court.