ISLAMABAD: Pakistan people’s party (PPP) lost another veteran member from Faisalabad when Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan defected to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) after meeting PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday.
The PPP has already lost several of its leaders to PTI and Rana Aftab’s decision of joining PTI could prove to be a major setback for the party.
Rana Aftab Ahmad Khan, a seasoned politician from Faisalabad, had been PPP’s Punjab president before he announced to join PTI in a meeting with Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen at the latter’s residence.
During the occasion, Imran Khan welcomed the new member to PTI and said that the new addition would further strengthen the party in the region.
Aftab made his debut in provincial politics in 1988, when he was elected a member of Punjab Assembly for the first time. He also served as a deputy parliamentary leader of PPP in Punjab Assembly from 2005 to 2007.
According to reports, Rana had not been happy with his party’s senior leadership and therefore decided to join PTI. Earlier in 2011, Rana was invited by the then governor Punjab Latif Khosa after it was rumoured that he was going to defect from the party. On the occasion, Khosa had reassured the PPP leader that his concerns would be conveyed to then president Asif Ali Zardari, following which he deferred his plan to join PTI.
Due to fast dwindling popularity of PPP, several of the party’s members have parted ways with the party and defected to PTI, including Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan, Nazar Muhammad Gondal and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul.