Senior ANP leader Samar Haroon Bilour to join PML-N

A senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) and former member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Samar Haroon Bilour, has decided to join the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N).

Confirming her joining, she said that she will meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif today, after which her joining the PML-N will be officially announced. Samar Haroon Bilour is one of the active women leaders of the ANP.

She has served as the party’s provincial information secretary and a member of the provincial assembly in the past. Samar Bilour is the widow of martyred ANP leader Haroon Bashir Bilour, who was martyred in a suicide attack during an election campaign during the 2018 elections.

Samar Bilour belonged to a prominent political and business family of Peshawar, and she is known for her active voice against injustices against the poor masses and corruption by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Her abrupt decision to join PML-N has left shocking waves across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa political landscape, and they termed it a successful plot of the establishment.

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Soon after her election, Samar demanded a judicial inquiry into the attack that killed her husband, signalling her commitment to transparency and accountability in terrorism investigations.

She publicly pledged to carry forward her husband’s goals, particularly aiding families of terrorism victims, advocating for rehabilitation centres, and promoting education and medical aid.

Samar Haroon Bilour’s journey is far more layered than just a bereaved widow-turned-politician. She’s a justice advocate, a voice for terror victims, a defiant female leader in a conservative region—and a public figure with personal trials yet to be resolved.