Islamabad - In a major blow to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a senior leader from the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bid farewell to the party on Saturday at a time when former president Asif Ali Zardari is on a four-day visit to the province.

Noor Alam Khan, former member National Assembly and PPP KP organiser, confirmed to The Nation that he has quit the PPP.

Khan had been affiliated with the party for about three decades.

“I have conveyed to the leadership about my decision of not contesting next elections on PPP’s ticket,” he said.

Khan said he has not taken any decision about his future course of action. “I will go back to my constituency and consult my voters before joining any political party,” he added.

“It was a difficult decision for me but I am left with no option,” Khan said while referring to his eventful journey that also included a jail term. He was put behind bars during the rule of former military dictator Parvez Musharraf in 2007.  Khan was elected MNA from Peshawar in 2008. He also hit headlines when he disclosure of his assets worth billions to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

“The leadership has once again assigned major responsibilities to corrupt mafia within the party,” Khan said while talking to The Nation.

Like many other disgruntled members of the party, Khan said, party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has also been sent into shadows.

He said that the corrupt mafia, having good relations with the former president, has once again started dominating the party.

“Bilawal has been stopped to perform duty as chairman of the party,” Khan said while pointing finger at the decisions being made in the PPP. He said that the party lost the 2013 general elections due to the policies of Zardari and it was happening again.

“We had high hopes that the party would rectify its distorted image with the emergence of Bilawal but he has been cornered.” In April, Murtaza Satti had quit the PPP and joined the PTI.