The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Thursday announced a change in party policy under which all new entrants would be screened by a committee before official induction into party ranks. The committee will gather information on all interested political leaders before they are accepted as members of PTI. In addition to the constitution of the new committee, party’s chief Imran Khan will also not meet all new members, as the policy will put a halt to the practice. The recent influx of political leaders was cited as a reason for the change in party policy. On May 21, five PTI lawmakers, who were expelled by party chief Imran Khan, served legal notices to the latter, demanding withdrawal of vote selling allegations in Senate elections. The lawmakers had also demanded an apology in 14 days and Rs 5 billion in compensation for ‘baseless allegations’ levelled against them. The disgruntled lawmakers said they had made the decision after consultation and if the party chairman failed to respond, then they would move the court under the defamation ordinance of 2002. On April 18, the PTI chief had announced initiating disciplinary proceedings against 20 lawmakers in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, who allegedly ditched the party during Senate polls. Published in Daily Times, May 25th 2018.