LAHORE: Former PPPP deputy secretary-general and former AJK minister Ghulam Mohiuddin Dewan has announced joining the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, saying People’s Party has lost its charm, vision and vitality.

At a ceremony held here at his Shah Jamal residence on Sunday, Mr Dewan said PTI chief Imran Khan was a “visionary” leader and had the ability to steer the country out of the crises it was faced with.

He said the PML-N had been blocked his AJK assembly election for the past four and a half years. He said he had won the AJK seat from Lahore but the PML-N got the election results blocked and moved the court.

Terming Mr Dewan’s joining PTI a match-winning wicket, the party’s Punjab organiser Chaudhry Sarwar said the dynamics of AJK politics would now change.

Using the occasion to condemn the child molestation scandal in Kasur, Mr Sarwar said the police and other public institutions had gone “bankrupt” as the only merit was to serve the PML-N rulers, leaving masses to fend for themselves.

Mr Sarwar said as governor he had resisted out-of-merit admissions to the Aitchison College but the PML-N government now removed its principal for standing tall on maintaining merit.

Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed, PTI chairman’s political adviser Ejaz Chaudhry, its Azad Kashmir president Barrister Sultan Mehmood and others were present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, former PML-N Nazim from Lahore Basharat Khokhar also joined the PTI after Chaudhry Sarwar visited his residence.

Earlier, in a meeting with party’s central leader Ashraf Sohna, Mr Sarwar said Punjab had topped in “bad governance” across Pakistan for being governed by the “jungle law”.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2015

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