PTI MNA from Peshawar joins JUIF

PESHAWAR: Member National Assembly (MNA) from Peshawar Nasir Khan Musazai has become the first parliamentarian of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf who quit his party to join PTI’s arch rival Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUIF).

When asked if he had really quit the PTI and joined JUIF, MNA Nasir Khan Musazai remarked, “You heard 200 percent true. I have quit PTI and joined JUIF.” He was elected on a PTI ticket from NA-29, Peshawar-III in the 2018 general election. Since Shah Farman was close to PTI Chairman Imran Khan from the very beginning and some of the party leaders did not like their long association. He defeated the JUIF candidate and became the MNA for the first time.

Shah Farman’s provincial consistency falls in the same place from where Nasir Musazai won the National Assembly election. For some people it was breaking news when Nasir Musazai was recently seen sitting with senior JUIF leaders in Peshawar, but for the PTI leadership it was not a big surprise as they were already aware of his intentions and contacts with JUIF.

Talking to The News, Nasir Musazai accused former governor Shah Farman of making him quit the PTI. “In four years, as MNA I didn’t receive a penny from the provincial government for the development of my consistency as Shah Farman had strictly warned the provincial government and its bureaucracy not to help me in any way,” he claimed.

“I had informed the chief minister and the then prime minister and party chairman Imran Khan and asked them to take note of what Shah Farman was doing against me. But they couldn’t help me and that’s why I decided to find some more venues for myself and JUIF is the best one,” Nasir Musazai explained. He said the JUIF leadership had extended an invitation to him to join the party so he accepted it and would soon publicly announce joining the party.

When reached, Shah Farman rejected allegations of Nasir Musazai, saying he had no authority over the government or public servants to have stopped them from providing funds to the party MNA. “I was unable to bring funds to my consistency for development projects. How could I stop funds to other people? Nasir Musazai should not distort facts as he received funds of millions which he didn’t spend on welfare of his electorates,” said Shah Farman. He added that it was the PTI that enabled him to win the first election in his life. “It would have no impact on PTI and its performance if Nasir Musazai stays or not in the party. It was the PTI that made him MNA,” he maintained.

The PTI leadership in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was surprised by the long silence of their party provincial president Pervez Khattak and his failure to issue a show-cause notice to MNA Nasir Musazai for violating the party discipline. Efforts were made to seek comments of Pervez Khattak, but he neither answered phone calls nor replied to the text messages sent to his cell phone.