TAXILA: Estranged PML-N stalwart Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan once again waved aside rumours that he was forming a ‘jeep group’.

Talking to media persons at the Kohistan Secretariat on Tuesday, he said he was just contesting the elections with the symbol of a jeep.

Local party leader Sheikh Zeeshan Saeed and election coordinator Syed Imran Haider Naqvi were also present on the occasion.

Mr Nisar said he was contesting the elections with the symbol of a jeep from four constituencies, NA-59, NA-63, PP-10 and PP-12 as an independent candidate.

Decision to run independently does not mean I have parted ways with PML-N, Nisar says

“I did not consult with anyone regarding my election symbol. I chose a jeep myself from three options I was given by the Election Commission of Pakistan,” he said.

Mr Nisar reiterated that he was not associated with any ‘jeep group’, that he had not consulted with anyone regarding the symbol and that he had also not known that many other people had chosen the same symbol.

“If I had to make such a group, I would have done so a year ago,” he said, and that he also has nothing to do with the PML-N candidates in south Punjab who had returned their tickets to contest the elections on the symbol of the jeep.

“My decision to run as an independent candidate does not mean I have parted ways with the PML-N,” he said.

The former interior minister said he will not go to Lahore to receive former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz on Friday.

“I would not have gone to welcome them even if I was a party member,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2018