ISLAMABAD – PTI Chairman Imran Khan has said that if Chaudhry Nisar decidesto contest the elections as an independent candidate, we may support him,”the PTI chief said when his comments were sought on the former interiorminister’s recent press conference.
Talking to reporters in Taxila on Saturday, Chaudhry Nisar had stated thathe was waiting for the party’s decision about him and after that he wouldannounce his future plans.
This is not for the first time Imran Khan expressed his desire to see thePML-N stalwart in his party as previously during his 120-day sit-in inIslamabad in 2014, he had also stated that Chaudhry Nisar would be welcomedto the PTI.
Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar had been sidelined by former primeminister Nawaz Sharif due to his opposition to the party’s policy ofconfronting the judiciary and the army during the hearing of the PanamaPapers case first before a joint investigation team and then the SupremeCourt.
The anti-Nisar group within the PML-N believes that he has sympatheticfeelings for his old friend Imran Khan and in their private conversations,they allege that as interior minister he had facilitated the PTI byallowing it to enter Red Zone and stage a sit-in.
They also criticise Chaudhry Nisar’s role as the interior minister at thetime of the formation of the JIT under a senior FIA official that probedthe Sharif family members on charges of money laundering in the wake ofPanama Papers leaks.
Despite having differences with the party leadership, Chaudhry Nisar on theother hand has many a time stated that he has no intention to quit theparty or to join any other party.
Imran Khan claimed that soon after the installation of the caretakergovernment, a number of PML-N members would quit the party. He said that itseemed that the elections would be held on time.