Aleem Khan, an ex-PTI leader, has been appointed president of the newly established Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP). The formation of the IPP was publicly declared earlier this month by Jahangir Khan Tareen, a veteran politician who pledged to focus on economic and social reforms in Pakistan.
Tareen, who used to be a trusted ally of the PTI Chairman but fell out in recent years, unveiled the new party in a press conference held in Lahore. The launch witnessed the joining of over a hundred ex-PTI members. Tareen, along with former PTI high-ranking members like Aleem Khan, Ali Zaidi, Imran Ismail, Tanveer Ilyas, and others, said their goal was to realize the “teachings of Quaid-i-Azam and the dreams of Allama Iqbal.”
In his announcement, Tareen named Abdul Aleem Khan as the IPP’s President, while Aamir Mehmood Kiyani was declared the Secretary-General and Awn Chaudhary as the Additional Secretary General and Spokesperson for both the party and the Patron-in-Chief. More announcements are anticipated soon.
Aleem Khan had previously expressed support for Tareen’s decision to start a new party, as he saw the growing chaos following the May 9 violence as alarming for patriotic Pakistanis. He recognized Tareen’s efforts in uniting various factions under the umbrella of a single party, recounting their shared 12-year journey of striving for shared goals, which, he sadly noted, remained unachieved.
