LAHORE: Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed, elder brother of the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Minister for Water and Power Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, has announced his decision to join the opposition Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), DawnNews reported.

Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed, who has also served as chairman Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in the past, met with the Sharif brothers on Monday at Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s residence in Model Town, Lahore.

During the meeting, the political situation in the country and matters of mutual interest were discussed. Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed also announced his decision to join the PML-N at the meeting.

Speaking at the meeting on Monday, CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif said that the announcement of Saeed’s inclusion would be a blow to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government, and would serve to further boost the PML-N’s popularity.

Following the PML-Q’s joining the coalition government, the PPP has been suffering big blows in Gujrat district where a good number of its followers have either joined the PML-N or the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf. Further political realignments are expected in the district in view of the plan of PPP and PML-Q to jointly contest the next general elections.

According to an earlier report, sources had told Dawn that the PML-N has been working on a strategy to put a strong resistance to the Chaudhrys of the PML-Q in the district by wooing strong political families such as the Nawabzadas, the Servis group and the Pagganwalas, who were staunch rivals of the Chaudhrys in Gujrat for long.

Sources said the PML-N has made a special committee comprising MNAs Khawaja Asif, Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khuram Dastgir Khan and headed by Hamza Shahbaz Sharif for the purpose.

The sources added that the committee had been trying to woo Chaudhry Ahmed Saeed of the Servis Group, the elder brother of Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, who has said he might not contest the next elections in case of a possible electoral alliance between the PPP and the PML-Q as Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi might be the PPP’s choice in the NA-105 constituency.