LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz says it has already expelled Azhar Abbas Chandia from the party when the MPA from Muzaffargarh had revolted against party policies around two years ago.

Mr Chandia, after a meeting with Chief Minister Usman Buzdar the other day, announced joining the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf after quitting the PML-N, from whose platform he had been elected to the Punjab Assembly in the 2018 polls.

Punjab PML-N spokesperson Azma Bukhari said Mr Chandia had not been accepted by the party when he met the chief minister for the first time -- six months after the general election. She claimed Chandia had then tendered an apology but the party had rejected his stance.

She said the PTI might accept these ‘gifts’ expelled by the PML-N, though the ruling party’s own people were ready to jump the ‘sinking ship’ of the government.

Buzdar sees more defections in future

She claimed that some PTI men were ready to abandon the PTI party right now provided the PML-N promised them tickets for the next vote.

“We are ready to quit this government provided they are guaranteed a ticket of the N-League in the next elections,” she quoted a PTI MPA as having said.

She said that the so-called Janoobi Punjab Suba Mahaz was also preparing to ditch the ruling ally.

CM: An official announcement said CM Usman Buzdar has welcomed PML-N MPA Azhar Abbas Chandia’s joining the PTI and termed it a good omen (for PTI). He said the move would further strengthen PTI in Southern Punjab. For the PML-N, he said, it was a major political setback.

Mr Buzdar said this was a clear message for those who had hoodwinked people through their hollow slogans. He said political workers were leaving the PML-N due to its negative politics and this trend would increase in future.

The chief minister said the opposition party would face defeat in the next general elections as well.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2021