ISLAMABAD - In another blow to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a senior leader from the Punjab and member of party’s Central Executive Committee Nawabzada Ghazanfar Gul has ended his over 30-year affiliation with the party, saying there was no space left for him in the PPP.

Gul, who had served as an adviser to prime minister during the PPP’s government, told The Nation that he had formally informed the party leadership about his decision.

“A formal letter of my resignation will follow,” he said.

In his message to Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Gul said “[In] Ref[erence] [to] my unanswered WhatsApp msg to Chairman Bilawal and my personal meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, I requested both of them to allow me an honorable exit from the party as there was no space left for me in the party anymore.”

“I find myself a stranger in the party now as I'm not compatible with the current, new and corporate culture of the party. I'm left with no other option but to withdraw myself from the party. It is the saddest day of my life to end 30 years of struggle and association with the party,” he said.

While explaining the reasons behind his decision, Gul said “promotion of corporate culture within the PPP is an open secret which needs no explanation.”

When asked about his future plan of action, he said that he had taken the decision of quitting the PPP with a heavy heart and was not in contact with any other political party. “I will think and consider, if contacted by other political parties to join them,” Gul said.

Gul had been openly criticising the former president Asif Ali Zardari in the past and in an interview with The Nation in January, he said that Zardari had turned the party’s Central Executive Council (CEC) into a platform just to seek support for his decisions as “most committee members lack the courage to disagree with the party leadership.”

Earlier this month, Noor Alam Khan from the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa bid farewell to the party two weeks ago at a time when former president Asif Ali Zardari was on a four-day visit to the province.

Khan, who had been attached with the PPP for three decades, has now joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Defections in the PPP have badly damaged its reorganisation campaign in the country despite the fact that Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is upbeat about revival of the party.