While the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) continues to dent the ranks of major political parties by wooing their heavyweights, common friends are playing an important role as conduits.
After Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Javed Hashmi, former NA speaker Fakhar Imam and former federal minister Abida Hussain, the politician husband and wife who quit the PML-N for PML-Q and then joined the PPP, are now being approached on behalf of Imran Khan through a common UK-based friend.
A source close to the political family from Khanewal and Jhang told Pakistan Today that a common friend of Imran and the Sadaat family – Sir Anwar Pervez – had been persuading the PPP leaders to join the PTI.
Sir Anwar Pervez, founder of the Bestway Group and a well-known UK-based businessman, is a close friend of Imran Khan and has been lavishly donating for his party. He also happens to be very close to Fakhar Imam and Abida Hussain.
“He (Anwar) is playing a role of a bridge between the two sides,” the source said.
The source said the PPP leaders were also unhappy with the party’s top command, as they thought they had been sidelined during the last three-and-a-half years.
“They also fear that due to possible seat-adjustment between the PPP and the PML-Q, Abida Hussain will not be awarded a PPP ticket in the next general election against PML-Q central leader Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, who is Abida’s conventional rival,” the source said.
Meanwhile, another PPP MNA and former minister of state for foreign affairs, Malik Amad Khan, is also in contact with the PTI leadership and can join Imran Khan.
“He is angry with the PPP leadership over his removal from the cabinet … he is also annoyed over giving ministerial slot to PML-Q MNA from Taunsa Sharif, Khwaja Sheraz,” the source said.
Sheraz is the son-in-law of Shadikhels, a tribe that is a conventional rival of Malik Amad in Mianwali.
