MUZAFFARABAD: Breaking his silence after his removal from the PTI’s top regional position in Azad Jammu and Kashmir earlier this week, former AJK prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas has ruled out joining any other political organisation.
“Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is our party and Imran Khan is our leader. I cannot even think of joining any other party,” Mr Ilyas claimed while speaking to the recently elected councillors and PTI workers from his Poonch division.
He asserted that he had always practiced “dignified and principled politics” and had told Mr Khan that his affiliation with the PTI was not conditional to the party or government office.
“If ever I happen to stop doing politics from the PTI’s platform, I will launch my own party at the national level but will not join any other party.”
Mr Ilyas was disqualified by the AJK high court on April 11 for his alleged contemptuous remarks about the judiciary. He was denied interim relief by the AJK Supreme Court where his appeal is scheduled to be heard on May 2.
Former speaker Chaudhry Anwarul Haq succeeded him as the PM after colluding with the combined opposition along with a sizable majority of PTI lawmakers.
On Monday last, Imran Khan invited all 31 MLAs elected on PTI ticket as well as Mr Ilyas at his Zaman Park residence. However, surprisingly only seven of them turned up at the meeting, which angered Mr Khan so much that he immediately replaced Mr Ilyas with former premier Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi.
Extending felicitations to Mr Niazi, Mr Ilyas said: “Together we have to move ahead and hold the lotas accountable.”
Mr Ilyas, who is a business tycoon, asserted that despite losing premiership and party’s top slot, he had become a “reality to reckon with on AJK’s political landscape”. “No one should remain under any misunderstanding that our political struggle will come to a halt after our eviction from the government,” he said.
He claimed that at an earlier parliamentary party meeting he had [also] informed Mr Khan that he had received offers from many parties but he had declined all.
