LAHORE: Two dissenting “stalwarts” of the Nawaz League, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Miftah Ismail, have announced the launch of a political party – Awaam Pakistan – on July 6.
It was revealed through a video posted on social media platform X, former Twitter, with the tagline ‘Awaam Pakistan: Badlen ge nizaam’ (People of Pakistan: will change the system).
The idea of the new party has been conceived by Abbasi, a former prime minister, and Ismail, a former finance minister, of the current ruling PML-N some time ago to “pull the country out of crises”.
Ismail recently announced the launch of Awaam Pakistan with Abbasi as its first convener. Divulging the party’s manifesto, he said it aimed to change the governance system with the masses as core sources of decision-making.
He also revealed that his party had been in contact with several “heavyweight” politicians across the country, adding that Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Javed Abbasi, Syed Zaeem Qadri, Rana Zahid Tauseef, Zahid Binnouri, and Sardar Anwar Soomro, all members of the PML-N, would be part of the Awaam Pakistan party.
Interestingly, Dr Zafar Mirza, an aide to PTI’s Imran Khan on health, and Sheikh Salahuddin of the MQM, will also join the Abbasi-led party, Ismail announced.
He said Abbasi, who parted ways with the Nawaz-led party after having differences over appointment of Maryam Nawaz as the party leader superseding him, submitted documents to the ECP for the registration of the party under the Election Act 2017.
Abbasi had been a confidant of Nawaz Sharif and served as prime minister after he was disqualified by the Supreme Court over corruption charges from August 2017 to May 2018.
It may be recalled that two bigwigs from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jahangir Tareen and Pervez Khattak, formed their own political parties which included a number of politicians from the Imran Khan-founded party. Tareen launched the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and Khattak the PTI-Parliamentarians. It may also be remembered that Abbasi and Ismail, along with former PPP senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, have been working on the project after quitting their parties over policy differences in 2022 and 2023. –Agencies
