Former PTI leader Humayun Akhtar joins IPP as senior vice president

• Humayun Akhtar says he quit PTI over May 9 vandalism. 
• Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan welcome Akhtar to IPP.
• Aleem commends Akhtar’s role in country’s political landscape.

LAHORE: The former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, Humayun Akhtar Khan, joined Jahangir Tareen-led Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) as senior vice-president, The News reported Sunday. 

Addressing a press conference, flanked by IPP patron-in-chief Jahangir Khan Tareen and IPP President Abdul Aleem Khan, Humayun said: “I have spent a long time with the IPP friends. The higher power has once again united us.”

Following the May 9 events, which were triggered by former PTI chief Imran Khan's arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust case, Akhtar quit the party in protest. He remained a member of the National Assembly (MNA) in 1990, 1993, 1997 and 2002 and was also a PTI ticket holder after Khan vacated the seat from Lahore in 2018.

He joined a long list of PTI senior leaders including Shireen Mazari, Asad Umar, Parvez Khattak, Fawad Chaudhry, Imran Ismail, Aamer Kiani and Murad Raas, who also parted with the party over the May 9 vandalism with some blaming the PTI founder's policies for the attacks on the military installations.

Recalling the events that transpired on May 9, Akhtar said: “I have parted ways with the Tehreek-e-Insaf after the May 9 vandalism when the military installations were attacked.”

“Jahangir Tareen is my elder and Aleem Khan is my younger brother,” he said. He bemoaned the poverty and unemployment in the country.

Tareen and Aleem welcomed Humayun Akhtar. “It is a matter of great delight that Humayun has joined IPP and he is designated as the party’s senior vice president,” Tareen stated.

Meanwhile, Aleem commended Akhtar’s role in the country’s political landscape and hoped that the new entrant would strengthen the IPP besides the entire country.

Humayun Akhtar’s debut election was in 1990 when he defeated the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Secretary General Sheikh Rafique. In the 1993 election, he defeated a political heavyweight and two-time winner of the NA-93 seat Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan.

In 1997, he was elected as MNA from Rahim Yar Khan and in 2002, he once again clinched the NA-125 seat by defeating the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and PPP candidates after a thrilling contest. His brother Haroon Akhter Khan also got elected as an MPA in 1993 when he defeated Qasim Zia of PPP from then PP-119.