Senior member of Pakistani PM’s ruling party denies forming breakaway group

ISLAMABAD: Jahangir Tareen, a senior member of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, denied on Wednesday he had formed a breakaway group amid reports of a ‘forward bloc’ that threatens the stability of the Khan government and its thin parliamentary majority.
Sugar baron Jahangir Tareen is seen as a king-maker who is known to have convinced many ‘electable’ politicians to join Khan’s political party ahead of the 2018 general election that brought him to power as prime minister. Tareen is currently being investigated in a high-profile corruption case and is known to be estranged from Khan.
“Tareen dispelled on Wednesday reports of a split in the ruling party, even as he maintained that PTI lawmakers from ‘his group’ would be raising their voices in the Punjab Assembly against what he called ‘acts of revenge by the provincial government,” Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported.
”The group will raise its voice in the assembly,” Tareen told reporters. “There are separate groups in every political party. We are part of the political party and it will not break.”
Quoting Raja Riaz, the leader of the alleged new group, Dawn said Tareen is backed by 40 lawmakers of the federal National Assembly and provincial Punjab Assembly. Khan’s party has 156 members out of a total 342 seats in the National Assembly and 181 of 369 members in the provincial assembly in Punjab, Pakistan’s largest and most politically important province.
Tareen’s maneuvers are being seen as a new political test for Khan, who won a vote of parliamentary confidence in March to continue as prime minister after his then finance minister lost a key Senate seat.

Senior member of Pakistani PM’s ruling party denies forming breakaway group