Weeks after resigning as a senator, PPP leader Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar announced on Friday that he decided to quit the party.
He confirmed his decision to leave the PPP while speaking to media.
Separately, in an interview, Khokhar elaborated on his reasons for leaving the party.
He said that he had a good run with the party but to continue further “is compromising on my self-respect”. However, he refused to provide any specifics, saying it was no use delving into the past.
Talking about the reason for resigning as a senator, he said that the PPP leadership could provide a better answer. He said he suspected that the positions he took on certain issues were not well-received by the party.
“That is why maybe some people in the party may have questioned him (PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari) so he may not have liked it and he thought it felt appropriate to ask for my resignation.”
Khokhar further said that he was not “disappointed” with how the events unfolded. “My heart is content over the positions I took and I will raise my voice and will not compromise on my independent thinking if there are more issues in the future.”
He said that political parties needed to give space for criticism. If there is no room for dialogue, then they become less like political parties and more like fiefdoms, he said.
When asked about his thoughts on the incumbent coalition government, the former senator said: “Hybrid regime 2.0 — absolutely. The kind of decisions being taken since Shehbaz Sharif was made the prime minister, those decisions were maybe not even taken in Imran Khan’s time.”
After the PTI government’s tenure, the current government “should’ve responded to Imran Khan’s wrongs in a democratic manner. Today we have pushed the country back to the 90s. If Imran Khan comes back in power, then he will want to take revenge,” he said.
