Pervez Khattak 'likely to be made' secretary general of Tareen's new party

• Khattak has not formally resigned from PTI.
• He stepped down from party positions on June 1.
• IPP populated with several former PTI leaders.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) bigwig Pervez Khattak is likely to be made secretary general of the newly-established Istihkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) led by Jahangir Tareen, sources told Geo News on Friday.

The sources confirmed that the PTI stalwart has been in touch with the sugar baron for "many days" and will join the new party along with his colleagues.

The development comes less than two weeks after Khattak announced in a presser that he was stepping down from his position as president of the party's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter. However, Khattak had dismissed reports that he was quitting PTI and termed them "propaganda".

Tareen — once a close aide of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and a key person in bringing the party to power in 2018 — officially launched his new party on Thursday, saying that he joined politics to play his role for the betterment of the country.

However, Tareen and Khattak are not the only former PTI members in this new party.

In fact, several PTI defectors — who parted ways from Khan following the May 9 mayhem — have joined hands with Tareen.

On May 9, the PTI chairman was arrested from the premises of the Islamabad High Court. His arrest triggered almost countrywide rioting, during which important military installations — including the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and Lahore Corp Commander’s residence — were attacked and vandalised.

Since then, there has been a mass exodus of PTI leaders jumping ship and many that claimed to leave the party had stated in their press conferences that they had bid adieu to politics.

Some of the notable people to join IPP include Fawad Chaudhry, Ali Zaidi, Imran Ismail, Firdous Ashiq Awan, Aamer Mehmood Kiani, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, Mahmood Baqi Maulvi, Fayaz ul Hassan Chohan and Murad Raas.