MURREE: The recently appointed former PPP MNA Ghulam Murtaza Satti joined the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) after a meeting with party chairman Imran Khan in Banigala.

Mr Satti was elected union council nazim from the Narrh union council in Kahuta Town in 2000 on a PML-Q ticket. After the PPP’s Javed Iqbal Satti withdrew his candidature in the 2002 general elections, the party’s local leadership recommended that Mr Satti be awarded the party ticket.

Mr Satti won the National Assembly seat on the PPP ticket, defeating Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. By joining the PTI, Mr Satti has created an interesting political situation, since there are already three PTI National Assembly candidates in his constituency.

Professor Sadaqat Abbasi was the PTI candidate in 2013 and secured around 50,000 votes against Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, while another PTI candidate – Sardar Saleem Khan – is a former town nazim who contested a provincial assembly seat on a PML-Q ticket prior to joining the PTI. Javed Iqbal Satti, who once contested a National Assembly election as an independent candidate and lost is also in the PTI.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2017