Former PTI lawmaker Zahid Durrani joins TLP

MARDAN: Former lawmaker of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Zahid Durrani on Saturday announced joining the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).

Speaking at a news conference here, he said that he quit the PTI because of the harsh and discriminatory treatment of Prime Minister Imran Khan towards his party’s lawmakers.

Zahid Durrani was elected as MPA on the PTI ticket in the 2013 general election from Mardan city. He was expelled by the party head Imran Khan after being accused along with several other MPAs of selling their votes in the March 2015 Senate elections. He had denied the accusation. TLP provincial head Maulana Shafiq Amini, Malik Falak Niaz, Dr Latif, Engineer Sikandar and a large number of party workers were also present on the occasion. Maulana Shafiq Amini said that in the general election 2018 his party had got more votes than all the other religious parties. He added that the religious parties in Pakistan were exploiting the people in the name of Islam for their vested interests.

He said that inflation, unemployment and lawlessness were on the rise in the country, but the PTI deceived the people in the name of change and its government had failed to deliver on its promises. He claimed that more than 10 percent of people in Pakistan were homeless and so poor that they were living on the footpaths. The TLP provincial chief said that his party was striving to work for the establishment of Shariah rule in the country.