Zahid Khan joins PMLN after quitting ANP

TIMERGARA: Former senator Zahid Khan and his brother Malik Ayoub Khan on Sunday joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) along with supporters after ending a long association with the Awami National Party (ANP).

Zahid Khan announced the decision at a gathering held at his residence at Odigram here on Sunday. PMLN Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter president and Federal Minister for States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) Amir Muqam and other party leaders were present on the occasion.

Addressing the gathering, Zahid Khan said he had joined the PMLN at the invitation of the party chief Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He disclosed that Mian Sahib had invited him to join his party during a meeting held in London, last year.

The former senator said that he had decided to quit all kinds of party politics but Nawaz Sharif convinced him and told him that people like him should not leave politics.

He made it clear that he always followed the philosophy of Late Bacha Khan and served the people of Dir irrespective of their political affiliations. “I remained an ideological worker but unfortunately, the politics of ideology have vanished in all political parties”, Zahid Khan lamented, adding that party positions did not matter to him.

“I was elected senator twice and served the ANP as its central spokesman for the last 34 years,” he said, adding that despite changes in positions he always preferred to remain a worker.

The former senior leader of ANP said that the Malakand division had been the worst affected region and he would like to serve its people as a worker of the PMLN.

Addressing the gathering, Amir Muqam said the Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf (PTI) leadership wanted to destabilize Pakistan and accused the party of being involved in conspiracies against the State.

Addressing the PTI founder Imran Khan, he said the US president could not bring him out of prison, rather he would have to face the courts of an independent country to win freedom.

"Imran Khan wrote a letter to the IMF which was a direct attack on the country's economy,” he said, adding Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had put the economy on the right track which was why the stock market had set new high records and the inflation had come down.

The PMLN leader said the PTI had taken the country to the brink of a default but the PMLN leadership revived progress in Pakistan. He said the PTI leaders would not get tired of raising the ‘Ghulami Na Manzoor’, but a PTI worker waved the American flag in the Swabi rally on Saturday that showed their love for the US.

Amir Muqam welcomed Zahid Khan to the PMLN and hoped that would strengthen the party in the region.

Talking about issues faced by people in the Malakand division, the PMLN leader said that he was well aware of the problems and he would try his best to secure special packages for it from the federal government as, he alleged, the PTI had ruined the province during the last 13 years of its rule. It is worth mentioning here that Zahid Khan was an important leader of the ANP. He was made senator twice on the ANP ticket in the past. But he developed differences with the party's new chief, Aimal Wali Khan. He felt sidelined and later decided to quit the nationalist party and join the PMLN.