LAHORE, Oct 26: Former Pakistan People’s Party federal law minister Syed Iftikhar Husain Gilani has embraced the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz after his less than a year-long affair with Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf.
Gilani, along with ex-member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Iftikharuddin Khatak, called on PML-N President Nawaz Sharif in Raiwind on Friday and announced his divorce with the PTI of which he was a senior vice president.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, PML-N Secretary-General Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, former KPK chief ministers Pir Sabir Shah and Mehtab Abbasi, Amir Muqam and Senator Pervaiz Rashid were also present.
Welcoming the new entrants, Nawaz said their joining of hands with the PML-N would go a long way in strengthening the party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He hoped the party would improve its standing in KPK taking an advantage of the experience of new members.
Gilani had contested 1970 elections for the then NWFP Assembly as an independent candidate. Losing his first electoral fight, he joined the PPP in 1971. He was elected an MNA in 1988 on PPP ticket and served as federal law minister in the Benazir government.
He got annoyed with the party in 1993 when Ms Bhutto nominated Farooq Leghari as the PPP candidate for presidential polls.
He then joined the PML-N and remained associated with it until 1998 when he again changed his loyalties to sit with Ms Bhutto.
But after the army takeover in 1999, he embraced the then kings party—the PML-Q.
His association with the Q League ended the previous year when he joined the PTI in the presence of Imran Khan in Islamabad in December.
Reacting to Gilani’s decision of re-accepting Nawaz Sharif as his leader, PTI information secretary Shafqat Mahmood said it seemed the term of lota (turncoat) had been coined for the people like Iftikhar Gilani.
Not sharing what made the former law minister to quit the PTI, he said change of loyalties (by various personalities) is a routine matter when elections are around the corner.
However, he said some people considered it as their right by birth to get party ticket for certain constituencies and when it was not promised leaving the matter to the parliamentary board, they got annoyed and abandoned one platform to join the other where they could get what they wished for.
Replying to a query, the PTI leader said Admiral (retired) Javed Iqbal left the party when he was warned against violating the party discipline by publicly criticizing the Asghar Khan case verdict.
Meanwhile, former Punjab minister in Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s cabinet Rana Shamshad Ahmed Khan also called on Nawaz Sharif and joined the PML-N.
Rana Shamshad belongs to Gujranwala and had contested election from PP-100.