PTI won’t be able to form Punjab government again: MPA

PTI Punjab MPA Salam Naeem said on Thursday that he believes his party will not be able to form government in Punjab again.“We represent Punjab and it appears that the PTI will never be able to form the government in Punjab again,” Naeem told SAMAA TV’s Kiran Naz.Naeem contested the 2018 election from Multan as an independent candidate and later joined the PTI. He is among the Punjab lawmakers who are loyal to disgruntled PTI leader Jahangir Tareen.“Our leader is Imran Khan but Jahangir didn’t only make us join the party but also cared for us,” the Punjab lawmaker said, adding that this is the reason he was supporting him.Tareen, once a close friend of Prime Minister Imran Khan, was sidelined by the PTI after an inquiry into the 2020 sugar crisis accused him of benefiting the most from it.The estranged PTI leader is currently facing money laundering and fraud cases.Asked if he would vote for the PML-N in Punjab, Naeem said he doesn’t believe Tareen will make such a demand.“In the next election, I can’t give any guarantee,” he said. “We will have to take a decision because our political future is at stake.”

‘Why am I being pushed towards enmity?’

Tareen, who appeared before a Lahore banking court Wednesday morning, said he has been silent for almost a year after being sidelined by the PTI.“What more proof of loyalty do you need,” he questioned. “I was a friend, why am I being pushed towards enmity?”Tareen had played a key role in establishing the PTI’s government in Punjab. Soon after the 2018 election, he actively approached several independent MPAs and MNAs and convinced them to join the PTI.In an interview with SAMAA TV last year, the estranged PTI leader had said that his private jet wasn’t used to transport the lawmakers to Islamabad for meetings.The plane used to transport them at the time of the government’s formation was rented from elsewhere, he had said.“There is nothing bad in this,” he had said. “If we want the MPAs and MNAs to join us and if we brought them on our plane, then no one should have an objection to it.”