LAHORE: Former federal minister Humayun Akhtar Khan has joined the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) of sugar baron Jahangir Khan Tareen (JKT).

Upon his joining he was given the slot of party’s senior vice president (SVP). Akhtar had already left the Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) following the May 9 mayhem.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Humayun Akhtar Khan announced his joining the IPP in the presence of JKT and Aleem Khan. He said he would decide from which constituency to contest the Feb 8 general elections after consultation with IPP leaders. He said the IPP would solve the problems of the people.

“The IPP leaders know the challenges being faced by the country and also their solutions,” he said and added the IPP leadership had an important role in the PTI’s creation and winning the 2018 elections when the country’s youth were looking towards Imran Khan.

Aleem says talks with PML-N on seats adjustment under way

Talking about the young PTI people who were languishing in jail, Akhtar requested the courts to release the innocent and allow them to go back home.

Akhtar began his politics with the PML-N and was a federal minister during the Musharraf rule before joining the PML-N again. He joined the PTI after the 2018 polls.

Speaking on the occasion, Tareen said the popularity of the PTI after the May 9 events had plummeted and the PTI’s position was not the same as before.

Son of Gen Akhtar Abdur Rehman, Humanyun Akhtar has constantly been changing political parties since his entry into politics in late 1980s on the platform of the IJI, which was dubbed as king’s party of its time.

Then he shook hands with Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N in 1990s. After Nawaz’s exile in Saudi Arabia, he joined Gen Musharraf’s king’s party PML-Q. In 2009, he joined Pakistan People’s Muslim League before boarding the bandwagon of Imran Khan’s PTI in 2018.

Seat adjustment with PML-N

IPP president Aleem Khan said talks with the PML-N on seats adjustment were under way. “We will not sacrifice others’ necks for our seats. We don’t practice this type of politics,” he said.

PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif had held a meeting with Tareen last week and decided that both parties should go together in the upcoming general elections. Official sources said the PML-N was reluctant to go for seat adjustment with both IPP and PML-Q in Punjab as it wanted to accommodate its own men but the Sharifs had to follow directions from the powers that be. Both the IPP and PML-Q former lawmakers had supported ousting PTI supremo Imran Khan from the prime minister office in April 2022 and they had got assurance then that PML-N would accommodate them in the next polls.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2023