MANSEHRA, March 4: The chairman of Sooba Hazara Tehrik and a leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Sardar Mohammad Yousuf, has joined Pakistan Muslim League-N along with his supporters including MPA Wajiuzzaman Khan.

“Yes, MPA Wajiuzzaman Khan and I have joined PML-N. Other members of my group would announce joining PML-N at a big public gathering in Mansehra in the last week of the current month,” Mr Yousuf told local journalists here on Monday by telephone from Lahore.

He was visited by PML-N provincial president Pir Sabir Shah and Mohammad Safdar, the son-in-law of PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif, at his residence on Sunday.

Mr Shah formally invited him to join their party and he accepted the invitation and decided to meet Mr Sharif in Lahore.

“MPA Zaman and I met Mr Sharif in Lahore and joined PML-N,” said Mr Yousuf.

Mr Yousuf, a former MNA, had also remained district nazim of Mansehra. During the election campaign of his son, Minister of State for Special Education and Training Sardar Shahjehan Yousuf, he had criticised strongly Mr Sharif and his party.

The state minister had said during a PML-Q meeting held in Lahore on Saturday that he and his father would not join PML-N. However, his father joined PML-N along with his supporters.

Talking to journalists by telephone, Mr Yousuf said that remaining members of his group would join PML-N at a public meeting on March 25 in Mansehra. Although he didn’t name anyone, PML-Q provincial president Syed Qasim Shah and former MPA Tariq Khan are considered active members of his group.

However, Syed Qasim Shah and Tariq Khan Swati, when contacted, ruled out the possibility of joining PML-N.

“We have been standing by the Chaudhrys of Gujrat for the last many years and would never leave them now at any cost,” said Mr Shah. He said that PML-Q would win the upcoming general elections in the country and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.Mr Swati said that he even could not think of quitting PML-Q and joining any other party. “We criticised Mr Sharif and his party when he (Mr Sharif) helped in renaming NWFP as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. How can we join him,” he questioned.

Mr Swati said that Chaudhrys of Gujrat had extended their full support to them in their struggle for creation of a new province of Hazara and he couldn’t betray them at any cost.