Faisalabad candidates join PML-N

Former PPP and PML-Q members call on Nawaz Sharif.

LAHORE:

Several former members of the provincial and national assemblies and ticket-holders of other parties have called on Nawaz Sharif at Raiwind and joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Sharif’s political secretary Dr Asif Kermani said that former PML-Quaid MNA Chaudhry Safdar Shakir, former MPAs Mazhir Gill and Arif Gill, and PPP ticket-holder Rai Usman Kharal, all from Faisalabad, had joined the PML-N.

Sources said that they had been assured they would get party tickets for the next elections and their constituencies had been discussed, though not finalised.

PML-N MNA Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali arranged their meeting with Sharif.

He has the task of trying to strengthen the party in Faisalabad district, where the Tehreek-i-Insaf has recently won over quite a few influential politicians in recent weeks.

Former Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MPA from Multan Malik Ishaq Buccha also called on Sharif at Raiwind and joined the PML-N. Kermani said that Senator Najma Hameed and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also attended the meeting.

The sources said that the PML-N had started to negotiate with former federal minister Sikander Bosan of the PML-Quaid to join the party. They said that Bosan had expressed a desire to join the PML-N along with Shah Mehmood Qureshi, back when Qureshi was still considering such a move.

The sources said that PML-N had now approached Bosan and invited him to join the party.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2011.