Pervez Khattak lobbying to join PPP

• PPP leadership has "instructed" local leaders to meet Khattak. 
• Khattak had announced quitting politics after defeat in Feb 8 polls.
• Former PTI leader also trying to mend ties with brother. 
  

NOWSHERA: Following his newly formed political party’s humiliation in the general elections, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Pervez Khattak is lobbying to join the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and has held meetings with the party's Nowshera chapter in this regard, reported The News on Tuesday.

Sources close to Khattak confirmed to the publication that he was considering joining the PPP despite quitting politics after his crushing defeat in the February 8 election.

The former KP CM, his two sons and a son-in-law lost in the polls while his party could only secure two provincial assembly seats.

With the defeat, Khattak had gone into political hibernation and cut off contact with his workers and supporters.

However, the former defence minister has become active and even reached out to his supporters during the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays.

According to The News, Khattak had approached senior leadership of the PPP, including Raja Pervez Ashraf, Syed Khursheed Shah and others, to join the party. However, Khattak was told that his joining PPP would be subject to the party’s local chapter agreeing to his inclusion.

Ilyas Khan, a PPP leader in Nowshera, confirmed that Shah had contacted the party’s Nowshera general secretary Saeedullah and discussed Khattak’s offer to join the party. He added that Shah had instructed Saeedullah to arrange a meeting of the PPP Nowshera office-bearers with the former defence minister and if they were willing then the leadership would include Khattak in the party’s ranks.

Since then, Khattak has been approaching the PPP’s Nowshera chapter to win them over.

The development was also confirmed by Ilyas who shared that Khattak hosted an iftar dinner for PPP’s Nowshera leadership in Islamabad.

According to the report, the members of the Bilawal-led party had asked Khattak for some time so they could discuss the matter with the widow of the late PPP leader from Nowshera Liaqat Shabab with whom the former CM had differences.

To a question whether Khattak could become KP governor if he joins PPP, Ilyas said that President Asif Ali Zardari and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would have a say on this but clarified that the party is yet to make a decision.

Meanwhile, the former chief minister is also making efforts to mend ties with his estranged brother who had joined Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl, according to family sources, who shared the development with the paper.