Former PTI members and ticket holders from southern Punjab have announced that they are quitting the former ruling party and joining the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a private TV channel reported. A meeting was held at the Bilawal House in Lahore where former president Asif Ali Zardari met with senior PPP leader Yousaf Raza Gilani and other party leaders as well as the new members. On the occasion, former MNA Qutub Farid Koreja, Raees Akmal Warran from PP-265, Sardar Shamsher Mazari, Syed Qasim Ali Shamsi from PP-279, Farheen Batool, Abdul Aziz Kallank from PP-278, former MPA Rasool Bakhsh Jatoi from PP-269, Peer Jafar Muzammil Shah from PP-277, Sardar Allah Wasaya from PP-273, Muhammad Alamdar Abbas Qureshi from NA-179, and Malik Abdul Ghaffar Arain announced their inclusion in the PPP. Furthermore, Syed Jameel Shah, Syed Rashid Shah, Sheikh Dilshad Ahmed, Bilal Mustafa, Syed Tahseen Nawaz, Mian Ali Haider Wattoo, Mian Salman Ayub, Mian Aamir Haider Wattoo, Ilyas Khan, Amjad Khan Niazi, Muzammil Khan, Omar Masood Farooqi and others who belong to the PP-209 constituency of southern Punjab, also announced their inclusion in the PPP after meeting with the former president.
On Tuesday, Zardari arrived via a private plane in Lahore, where he is expected to stay for several days and actively engage in political activities. The development comes as many prominent leaders and workers continue to leave PTI, which ran into trouble following violent protests and arson attacks after PTI chief Imran Khan was arrested by paramilitary Rangers on the orders of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from the Islamabad High Court premises in the £190 million National Crime Agency case on May 9.