The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday welcomed Farooq Bandial to the party only to expel him a few hours later following a heavy backlash on social media directed at the new entrant's criminal past.
Farooq Bandial, who hails from Punjab's Khushab district, was handed a death sentence by a Special Military Court in 1979 for committing "armed dacoity" at the house of film actress Shabnam in Gulberg area of Lahore.
The headline of a news clipping from Dawn's edition of October 24, 1979, reads: "Five to die for dacoity at Shabnam's house". Farooq Bandial has been named in the story as one of the convicts.