CHARSADDA: Qaumai Watan Party MPA Khalid Khan Mohmand joined Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf here on Sunday.

According to sources close to Khalid Khan, the announcement was made at Frontier House Islamabad on Friday in presence of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, PTI senior central vice-president and core committee member Fazal Mohammad Khan, provincial minister Shah Farman and others.

It will be a setback for QWP as Khalid Khan was a close confidante of QWP chief Aftab Ahmed Sherpao. He is reported to have developed differences with party leadership on poll ticket distribution. Mr Khan is likely to contest elections from PK-56.

The sources said Mr Khan took the decision after party leadership refused to give him ticket on PK-56 because party’s provincial president Sikandar Sherpao has announced to contest elections from the same constituency. Now the bout on PK-56 would be among QWP’s Sikandar Sherpao, PTI’s Khalid Khan, MMA’s Mufti Gohar, while ANP is yet to announce its candidate from the constituency.

It merits a mention here that QWP founding member and former general secretary MPA Bakht Baidar has also quit QWP and joined Pakistan Peoples Party.

Last year, three of the party MPAs joined other political parties. MPA Ibrar Tanoli from Mansehra joined Jamaat-i-Islami, MPA Abdul Kareem from Swabi and MPA Sultan Khan from Charsadda joined the PTI.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2018