Chief of PTI splinter group offers his platform to Tareen's bloc.

LAHORE -- One day after a group of politicians - mostly belonging to south Punjab and led by sugar baron Jahangir Khan Tareen - mulled a proposition floated by the powers that be to set up a 'parallel' Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf to contain ousted prime minister Imran Khan's party ahead of the next elections, the PTI-Nazriati (PTI-N) chaiArAman offered them his party's platform on Tuesday.

'I invite Mr Tareen for talks if he and his group members are interested in doing politics from the platform of PTI-N. My party's doors are open for TarAeen and other 'clean politicians' to achieve what we could not in Khan's PTI which is a 'one man' show,' PTI-N chairman Akhtar Iqbal Dar said.

Mr Dar said he got PTI-N registered with the ElecAtion Commission before the 2018 elections after falAling out with Imran Khan. 'I quit PTI and launched PTI-N after opportunists took over PTI.

'Imran Khan does not respect anyone and takes all decisions on his own,' Mr Dar said. He was a classmate in college of the PML-N's Saad Rafique and PTI's Riaz Fatayana.

Akhtar Iqbal Dar, who hails from Sheikhupura, further said the PTI-N would become 'relevant' before the next elections.

The Tareen group held a huddle in Lahore on Monday in which disgruntled MNAs and former Punjab MPAs, who were disqualified after voting for the PML-N candidate in the chief minister's election last year, participated.

Counterweight to PTI

The Tareen group has been given a go-ahead to focus on breaking the PTI, especially in the light of a possible disqualification of Imran Khan in any of the cases pending against him.

A parallel platform would have all the support of the establishment to dent the PTI.

Former Punjab minister Ajmal Cheema, who attended Tareen's huddle, told Dawn on Tuesday that the meeting discussed the political situation in the country and agreed...