Jamali quits PML-N, assembly seat

KARACHI: Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Thursday bid adieu to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) reportedly on differences with the party head over confrontation with the national institutions, local media reported. He also quit his membership of the National Assembly saying that truth is not spoken in the assembly. A few days earlier, Zafarullah Jamali had suggested President PML-N Nawaz Sharif to refrain from confrontation with the institutions.

The former PML-N leader has returned to his ancestral village and would announce next course of action after consultation with the local people. The sources said that he had apprehensions about policies of the PML-N. He said the ousted PM had still not changed a bit, while he had thought that Nawaz would have been changed by now, he added.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders reportedly contacted Jamali seeking him to join their parties. Originally a supporter of the PPP, the 73-year-old politician formally launched his political career in the 1970s from Balochistan. He has also served as chief minister of Balochistan during the late 80s and 90s. 

He later joined the PML-N and then dissociated with it after the military coup led by former president Pervez Musharraf. As a Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader, he rose to prime minister’s post in 2002 until his resignation in 2004. Until now he was a confidant of Nawaz, but lately, intra-party differences took place which led to Zafarullah’s parting ways with the PML-N.