Jahangir Khan Tareen on Monday announced the office-holders of his newly-formed Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), saying more announcements will follow in the days to come.
“I am pleased to announce Abdul Aleem Khan as the president of Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party,” he wrote on Twitter. “Aamir Mehmood Kiyani as secretary general. Awn Chaudhary as additional secretary general and spokesperson of the party, as well as of the patron-in-chief,” he added.
All three office-holders were previously affiliated with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Aleem Khan parted ways with the party last year around the time PTI chief Imran Khan was ousted as prime minister in a vote of no-confidence; Kiyani left the party after the May 9 riots triggered by the arrest of Khan in a corruption case; and Chaudhary was expelled from the PTI by Khan in July 2021.
Tareen, accompanied by several other PTI leaders, last week announced the formation of the IPP, saying it would work to “lift the country out of this quagmire.” At the time, Tareen had emphasized that everyone who had joined the IPP after exiting the PTI had worked “day and night” to strengthen their former party and regretted the events of May 9. Lamenting that people had lost all hope in the current political system, Tareen had said it need a new direction and urged both the government and opposition to adhere to their constitutional roles to strengthen democracy.
Addressing the event, Aleem had said they had decided to form a new party because of their concerns over the prevailing political situation. “We believe that the solution to Pakistan’s problems is to make the country stable,” he had said, lamenting that past year’s chaos had weakened the country.
The PTI, which has seen an exodus of party leaders and workers in the wake of the crackdown launched against it over the May 9 riots, has rubbished the IPP, maintaining it would not be able to dent its vote-bank. PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, last week, described it as “dead on arrival.”