Ex-Pakistan PM Abbasi launches new political party 'to change system'

Pakistan's former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday formally launched a new political party with the mission to change the system and restore respect for the Constitution of the country.

The main slogan of the Awaam Pakistan Party is: Badlien gaen nizam' (we will change the system) and its membership is open to anyone and everyone who can contribute for the development of the country.

Abbasi, 65, served as a prime minister from August 2017 to May 2018 when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court.

Abbasi, who belongs to the Murree area of Rawalpindi, which is a famous hill resort, distanced himself from the PML-N due to policy disagreements after 2018 and refused to be part of the government in 2022.

He is a businessman, whose family owned the country's AirBlue airline. He entered politics in 1988 when elected as a member of the National Assembly for the first time. He was elected at least six times from the ...