Former federal minister and PML-N leader Sheikh Waqas Akram on Saturday joined the PTI.

“Fearing the elections, the PML-N continues to disperse in Punjab,” said a statement issued by the PTI announcing Akram’s membership.

The statement said that Akram met the PTI chairman at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore earlier and expressed full confidence in Imran Khan’s leadership.

He also declared allegiance to the ‘Haqeeqi Azaadi’ (actual freedom) movement and the party’s manifesto. Imran welcomed the former PML-N leader’s decision to join PTI.

PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry and PTI South Punjab President Amir Mehmood Kayani were also present on the occasion.

Akram said he had “unconditionally joined this movement”, referring to the PTI’s ‘Haqeeqi Azaadi’ campaign.

Akram was formerly a member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and joined the PML-N in March 2013 though he contacted the PPP the same month since his new party was reluctant to award him the ticket for NA-89.

He refused an offer made by the PML-N’s parliamentary board to contest the election from NA-115 in June 2018 and decided to contest as an independent candidate. It was viral in the political circles of Jhang district at the time that Akram was eager to get the PTI’s ticket for which he remained in contact with the party for quite some time but the PTI gave preference to Ghulam Bibi Bharwana over him.

His membership of the PTI is among several recent new high-profile additions to the party.

Last month, former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had announced that he was joining the PTI along with ten other former PML-Q MPAs.

In January, PML-N Rawalpindi division president Sardar Mumtaz Khan had also formally joined the PTI.