Islamabad: Former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri yesterday joined the party of cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, widely seen as emerging new star in Pakistan politics.
Kasuri, who served in the government of Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) during the rule of General Pervez Musharraf, announced his decision, standing beside Imran Khan, at a public rally in his home town of Kasur in the Punjab province.
He said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) of Imran Khan was winning support of masses because of its honest leadership and its agenda of social, economic and educational justice for the people, particularly the youth.
Kasuri is the second former foreign minister to join the PTI after Shah Mahmoud Quraishi, formerly a prominent figure in the Pakistan Peoples Party.
On Monday, Awais Leghari and his brother Jamal Leghari, sons of the late former president Farouq Leghari, joined the PTI. The same day popular singer Ebrar-ul-Haq also joined the party.
Other notables who have aligned with PTI include former members of parliament Sikander Bosan, Gulam Sarwar Khan and Ishaq Khakwani and several others known for their political clout in their areas.
‘Political tsunami'
Former federal minister Azam Khan Swati, who recently resigned from the Senate and membership of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), also joined PTI in the weekend.
Khan has held a series of successful political rallies in Punjab, marking impressive popularity gain for PTI in the most populous province and political heartland of the country, to the unease of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's PML-N, which is in power in the province.
The next main target of what Khan calls his "political tsunami" is Karachi, the country's biggest city and capital of Sindh province, jointly ruled by the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement.
The PTI is due to hold a rally around the mausoleum of Founder of the Nation Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi on December 27, for which it got permission after initial hesitation in the provincial government because of security concerns in the volatile port city.
