Senior PTI leader from AJK joins PAT

Tahir Khokhar, former senior parliamentarian of PTI and minister who held various portfolios such as transport, tourism, cooperatives, archives and youth affairs, has decided to join Pakistan Awami Tehreek along with his companions. He made this announcement at a crowded press conference at the PAT central secretariat.

PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, central vice-president Raja Zahid Mahmood, Secretary Coordination Arif Chaudhry, Sardar Mansoor Khan, Sardar Ijaz Saddozai, Raja Asim Ikram, Sardar Shahzad and others were present on the occasion.

PAT Secretary General welcomed Tahir Khokhar and his companions on their joining the PAT family and said that they would prove to be an asset of the party. Speaking on the occasion, Tahir Khokhar said that he was proud to become a member of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri's revolutionary caravan. He said that he is a political worker and his whole life has been spent in the struggle for the rights of the underprivileged sections of society. He said that he suffered imprisonment during the martial law of Zia-ul-Haq, went into exile and was subjected to torture. He said that he kept on struggling in the AJK Assembly as the representative of the overseas Kashmiris.

Tahir Khokhar said that he remained part of MQM, was elected member of the assembly twice and also remained part of the cabinet. He said that the PTI leadership contacted him in 2020 and extended an invitation to him to join the party. He said that Imran Khan gave a vision of the elimination of corruption and status quo but it dawned upon him after becoming part of the PTI that these claims were hollow and confined to only talk shows. He said that today PTI has been held hostage by different mafias and the party has deviated from the ideological path.

Tahir Khokhar stated that the elections in AJK are going to be held in July. The party, he said, asked for applications in return for heavy fees and conducted the facade of the interviews. The party's parliamentary board and some invisible forces started trading the party tickets through their front men on the other hand. He said that the ticket for the candidature from LA 34 Jammu 1, from which he was elected with heavy mandate was sold out to a parachuter, adding that the same was repeated in many constituencies.

The veteran leader from AJK said that tickets were sold to a wealthy family in return for payment of millions of rupees in the constituencies of migrants. He said that the PTI leader of AJK has been rendered wholly helpless. He said that on the one hand, PTI Chairman talks about transparency of elections and deploying electronic voting machines for this purpose, the AJK leadership of the party is involved in making fake votes in the constituencies of the migrants whose proofs have been handed over to the concerned institutions but to no avail.

Tahir Khokhar said that a ticket of one constituency is being sold for millions of rupees and those receiving kickbacks and money include a minister in addition to the parliamentary board members. He said that PTI is violating every principle and electoral ethic in order to 'conquer' Azad Kashmir. He said that a new history of corruption and malpractices is being created.

He said that it was after deliberations he reached the conclusion that the only party that has the solution to the problems facing the masses is PAT. He said that this is the only political party which is free of corruption and struggling for the rights of the poor.