Imran recycles turncoats, says Pervaiz Rashid

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid on Sunday said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, despite making claims of bringing change, ‘recycles political turncoats’.

In a statement issued here, he criticised Khan for launching his party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan just before the upcoming polls.

“The person he [Imran Khan] chose as his party’s chief in AJK has already been tried and tested in the past,” Rashid remarked.

“Subsequent to forgetting people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after getting their votes, he [Imran Khan] will also overlook people of AJK and G-B after elections,” he claimed.

The information minister blamed the PTI chief of not giving Senate election ticket to representatives of middle classes of the society. “All his [Khan’s] candidates are either wealthy industrialists or rich bureaucrats,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Imran Khan had alleged that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has appointed his own ‘umpire’ for elections in Gilgit-Baltistan, but added in a challenging tone, that Sharif can try what he will; the PTI will win the elections.

Khan was addressing a press conference, where PTI’s newly appointed president for its AJK chapter, Barrister Sultan Mehmood announced that over 50 politicians from the region were joining the party.