ISLAMABAD: In the current wave of politicians’ dash for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, two more former legislators Neelofar Bakhtiar and Shahid Bhutto joined the PTI on Friday.

Both politicians held the portfolio of ministers in the past. Ms Bakhtiar served as federal minister during retired Gen Pervez Musharrf’s regime, while Mr Bhutto was a minister in the previous Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government.

Interestingly, Ms Bakh­tiar, who had been an active leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) women wing several years ago, joined the PPP last month when she met PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari in the federal capital.

However, on Friday she called on PTI chief Imran Khan at his residence in Banigala and joined the PTI. Party’s Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi and former secretary general Jehangir Tarin were also present on the occasion.

Shahid Bhutto, who is said to be a relative of former PPP chairperson and prime minister Benazir Bhutto, could not get a party ticket in 2013 elections and now he opted to join the PTI after an announcement that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will contest polls from his (Shahid’s) constituency in Larkana.

Before the joining of two legislators, several other politicians also made new bonds with the PTI. They included leaders of both the PPP and the ruling PML-N.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2018