RAWALPINDI: A local leader of Pakistan Tehrik-i- Insaf (PTI)on on Monday joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and declared Azadi March a movement to derail the democracy.

However, PTI declared that he didn’t belong to PTI.

Akmal Mirza, former information secretary of the PTI Rawalpindi District, announced this in a protest demonstration of PML-N led by the PML-N president, Sardar Naseem and former MNA Malik Shakil Awan against the statement of PAT’s chief Dr. Tahirul Qadri in Lahore.

Only a small number of PML-N workers participated in the demonstration held at Committee Chowk. They chanted slogans against Dr Tahirul Qadri for using bad language against the PML-N leadership.

Former MNA Malik Shakil Awan claimed that PTI information secretary and two leaders of Shabab-e-Milli, Sheikh Haroon and Yameen Kiani, had joined the PML-N.

“The PTI leaders started joining the PML-N in reaction to the policies of Imran Khan and we welcome them,” he said.

He said more than 10 local leaders of Rawalpindi and Islamabad had contacted the PML-N as they had been fed up with the policies of the party.

However, the PTI district president and MPA Arif Abbasi told Dawn that Akmal Mirza had already left the party before election as he wanted to contest the election from PP-13 as PTI candidate but PTI refused party ticket to him.

To a question whether he was information secretary, Mr. Abbasi said that information secretary was appointed by the district president and he appointed Naveed Satti as information secretary of the party’s local chapter in 2013 before general elections.

He said that the PML-N had failed to stop people from joining the PTI. “The PML-N has failed to deliver and the people are now looking towards the PTI,” he said.

When contacted, Akmal Mirza said he had been Deputy Media Coordinator in central office of the PTI. “The party is out to destabilise the elected government and being a political worker I don’t want to support such political party anymore,” he said.

He said that PML-N is the only party who wanted to put the country on the road to progress and it launched many development projects which required time to complete. He said that electricity issue would be solved soon.

“The claim of the PTI district president that I left the party one year ago is baseless. I left the party yesterday in protest against the anti-democratic movement of the party,” he said.

Published in Dawn, Aug 12th, 2014