Prominent lawyer Naeem Bukhari to join PTI

According to media reports, Bukhari will formally make the announcement during a press conference after meeting PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

Bukhari shot to prominence when he wrote a controversial open letter on 16th February, 2007 against then Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. His membership was subsequently suspended by the Punjab Bar Council.

On 9th March, 2007 Justice Chaurdhry was deposed by President Pervez Musharraf. The charges presented against him were based on the letter written by Bukhari.

The charges against Chaudhry related to the police career of his son Arsalan Iftikhar who was a doctor in the Balochistan government. It claimed that Arsalan had received the job due to nepotism and was getting special treatment and undue advantage at the behest of the Chief Justice.

This eventually led to a two-year-long lawyer’s movement for the restoration of Justice Chaudhry, during which Bukhari was out of the limelight. He came back to prominence after Chaudhry was eventually restored on 22 March, 2009.

Bukhari is also a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. He is the younger brother of former Pakistani fast bowler Saleem Altaf Bukhari.

He was married to popular Ghazal singer Tahira Syed daughter of Malika Pukhraj, which lasted twelve years until their eventual divorce in 1990. He also hosted a comedy show on a private television channel.