ISLAMABAD: Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who retires as senator of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on Sunday joined the PML-Nawaz after meeting its president and ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif at the latter’s Raiwind Lahore residence.

He is going to get the PML-N ticket for the March 3 Senate election and will be surely elected.

Mushahid was relieved of his position as parliamentary leader of PML-Q in the Upper House last month after crucial voting on the 24th Constitution Amendment Act.

A day before meeting Sharif, Mushahid resigned from the PML-Q and conveyed his decision to its president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in a letter.

Mushahid was PML-N’s information minister in 1999 but switched sides after his release from jail by the Musharraf regime in 2000 and joined PML-Q.

The Raiwind meeting was also attended by the ex-premier’s daughter Maryam, Senator Pervaiz Rashid and Federal Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique.

Before joining the PML-N in 1993, Mushahid was a prominent newspaper editor and columnist. After his jump in politics, he occasionally wrote columns for local and international publications, but quit journalism as his full-time profession.

He was also among those who were incarcerated by the Musharraf’s military regime after the October 1999 coup. He was held in custody for more than a year.

Throughout the PML-Q government from 2002 to 2007, Mushahid refused to join the federal cabinet although he was repeatedly offered a ministerial position.

After the introduction of the China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC), he heads a committee for the promotion of the multibillion projects.