PML-N's estranged leader Chaudhry Nisar refuses to join PTI: sources

• Nisar says he will continue to maintain his independent status.
• “Nisar will neither return to PML-N nor work under PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari,” say sources.
• PM had offered Nisar a senior position before 2018 elections, say sources.

RAWALPINDI: Estranged PML-N leader and former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday revealed that he will not join PTI and will continue to maintain his independent status despite Prime Minister Imran Khan’s meeting with Nisar on Wednesday.

According to Daily Jang sources, the senior politician is not going to join the ruling party.

“Nisar will neither return to PML-N nor work under PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari,” said the sources.

The development came after Prime Minister Imran Khan's statement during a press talk Wednesday that he met the estranged PML-N leader a while ago but didn't give more details in this regard.

"I have had an association with him for the last 40 years. We often hold meetings," the premier revealed, adding that Nisar will be "taking all political decisions himself."

The sources said that Imran Khan, in a meeting before the 2018 polls, had offered Nisar a senior role in the party which he refused to accept.

The prime minister had also offered to make him Punjab chief minister.

At that time, he thought that in an assembly, where the PML-N is in Opposition and Hamza Shahbaz is the Leader of the Opposition, he would not be able to speak against Shahbaz Sharif and it would not be appropriate for him to be the CM on the basis of just one seat.

The former Nawaz Sharif’s aide, according to reports, has refused to join the PTI and is busy in political meetings in his hometown of Chakri. His son, Taimur Ali Khan, has also started increasing his influence in the constituency.