Pakistan politics: PTI defectors flock to new boss, soon to launch new party

Scores of disgruntled leaders who quit Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan's party have joined hands and are set to launch a new military-backed party to fight the general elections likely to be held in October.

Sugar baron and Khan's old friend Jahangir Khan Tareen (JKT) is leading the group of leaders who left Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in the wake of attacks on military installations last month.

More than 100 PTI stalwarts and legislators on Wednesday joined their new boss Tareen who is likely to launch the Istehkaam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) comprising over 120 former leaders and lawmakers of the PTI.

This new party is being tagged as the king's party' by Khan and political pundits for having the full backing of the military establishment. In the next elections, it is said the king's party will emerge strong and have a share of power.

"It is not out of place to say that the IPP (king's party) will be the 'new PTI minus Imran Khan' in the next general elections likely to be held in October 2023," former PTI leader Firdous Ashiq Awan told the Press Trust of India on Thursday.

She said Imran Khan is responsible for what he and his party are facing today.

"His anti-military narrative caused May 9 incidents. Instead of targeting his political rivals he aimed at the establishment and now he is paying the price," she said. Most of the main leaders and former lawmakers of PTI have joined the JKT group and no one will stay with Khan, she said.

"We under the new platform will do politics against mainstream parties - PMLN and PPP - as PTI has now become a thing of the past," Awan said.

More than 130 leaders and former lawmakers have quit PTI for what Imran Khan said "under military pressure" to keep him out of politics.

Interestingly, some of them had announced a temporary break' from politics while quitting the PTI in the wake of the May 9 unrest. However, their break lasted only a couple of weeks before they formally entered the new political camp.

Every day since the attacks on over 20 military installations and state buildings including the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, the PTI leaders have been leaving Imran Khan.

It is believed that only a handful of PTI leaders may be left supporting Khan in the ongoing efforts to fracture the PTI.