Looks to join: PML-N Javed Hashmi resigns from PTI presidency
Premier’s party dusts off old slogan as it welcomes Hashmi in Multan
MULTAN:
As local Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers chanted a two-decade-old slogan of “Aik bahadur admi, Hashmi Hashmi!” former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) president Javed Hashmi hinted that he may join the party as he had formally resigned from the PTI’s presidency on Wednesday.
“I do not want to be a part of a party that is conspiring to derail democracy in the country,” he said during a press conference at his residence. “The PML-N is better than the undemocratic PTI, which is running on the planned script of the army generals and their companions,” the veteran politician claimed.
Local leaders in Multan who have supported Hashmi for nearly three decades in politics joined him during the press conference, including those who publicly disassociated from him during the last two years of his time with PTI. Some welcomed him with chants of “Baghi, baghi” and PML-N district president Bilal Butt announced that the party will appoint Hashmi president of PML-N’s south Punjab wing.
Hashmi said he intends to contest elections on the PML-N’s ticket wherever Shah Mehmood Qureshi will contest polls. PML-N candidate Sarwat Khan has stepped down in order to allow Hashmi to contest this seat. “PTI is no more than a tool of the military establishment and a third force against the ideology of patriotism and democracy in the country,” Hashmi said.
He said he is thankful to the PML-N leadership “for helping at a time when no one understands my sacrifice for democracy”. “The PML-N has honoured my services and sacrifices by supporting me in the upcoming NA-149 polls,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2014.
As local Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers chanted a two-decade-old slogan of “Aik bahadur admi, Hashmi Hashmi!” former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) president Javed Hashmi hinted that he may join the party as he had formally resigned from the PTI’s presidency on Wednesday.
“I do not want to be a part of a party that is conspiring to derail democracy in the country,” he said during a press conference at his residence. “The PML-N is better than the undemocratic PTI, which is running on the planned script of the army generals and their companions,” the veteran politician claimed.
Local leaders in Multan who have supported Hashmi for nearly three decades in politics joined him during the press conference, including those who publicly disassociated from him during the last two years of his time with PTI. Some welcomed him with chants of “Baghi, baghi” and PML-N district president Bilal Butt announced that the party will appoint Hashmi president of PML-N’s south Punjab wing.
Hashmi said he intends to contest elections on the PML-N’s ticket wherever Shah Mehmood Qureshi will contest polls. PML-N candidate Sarwat Khan has stepped down in order to allow Hashmi to contest this seat. “PTI is no more than a tool of the military establishment and a third force against the ideology of patriotism and democracy in the country,” Hashmi said.
He said he is thankful to the PML-N leadership “for helping at a time when no one understands my sacrifice for democracy”. “The PML-N has honoured my services and sacrifices by supporting me in the upcoming NA-149 polls,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2014.