GUJRAT: Shifting his loyalty for the second time in a year, veteran politician from Jhelum Raja Muhammad Afzal Khan has joined Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and left the Pakistan People’s Party he had joined after breaking his three decades affiliation with the PML-N.

Raja announced his change of heart at a meeting with PTI chairman Imran Khan in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Though Raja Afzal’s both former parliamentarian Raja Asad and Raja Safdar were not accompanying him at the joining ceremony, he insists that they are with him.

Raja Afzal who has been calling the shots in the politics of Jhelum district since 1983, has put his political career at stake when he defected to the PPP in January last year along with his sons Raja Asad Khan and Raja Safdar Khan, the PML-N MNAs at that time.

The move did not augur well for Raja as he lost both NA seats of Jhelum badly in the May 2013 vote.

His joining the PPP was surprising considering the party’s electoral performance in the district has been abysmal since 1990 general elections.

He might have thought that his political following and uplift funds promised by the then prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf would carry him and his sons through. The funds, however, were never released.

Raja Afzal was elected to the National Assembly four times and Senate once whereas Raja Asad was elected twice and Raja Safdar once.

Talking to Dawn by phone, Raja Afzal said that he did not have any complaints against the PPP but he and his local supporters thought to join hands with the PTI which was working for a change.

Asked if his joining was unconditional, he questioned how could a political figure of his stature who had served the parliament for a long time join any party unconditionally.

Asked if his sons were behind him, he replied: “Yes, of course”. He said that he did not have any regrets for leaving the PML-N.

It may be added his son Raja Asad had announced his disassociation with the PPP when his father joined the party last year whereas Safdar was keeping a silence over his family’s political course of action.

It is learnt that some local PTI leaders in Jhelum are not happy over Raja Afzal’s entry into the party.