Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaderMalik Amin Aslam also jumped on the bandwagon and announced quitting theImran Khan-led partyfollowing attacks on defence and public installations which happened during the May 9 protests.
The former adviser to the prime minister announced the decision at a press conference at the National Press Club on Thursday, saying that the PTI was overtaken by an "agenda" which got exposed during the protests.
“The May 9 incidents left me shocked [as] party workers took the law in their hands,” Aslam said. He added that wherever the rallies were held the target were military installations.
“Party leadership should have conducted an inquiry, whoever is pushing this agenda forward is not the party’s well-wisher,” said the climate activist. He added that he can not stay with such an “agenda” while clarifying that he made the decision without coming under pressure.
It must be noted that Amin Aslam was the climate change minister during the PTI's government. He was also the head of the Billion Tree Tsunami project.
PTI leaders have started leaving the former ruling party after the incidents that took place almost across the country following the arrest of Imran Khan from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on May 9.
A day earlier, PTI leaders Aamer Mehmood Kiani and Sanjay Gangwani also announced to quit the party following attacks on defence and public installations.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, hours after he parted ways with Imran Khan-led party over May 9 vandalism, Kiani said he was not only quitting the party but politics as well.
Terming the May 9 vandalism by the PTI protesters as a day of "national tragedy", Kiani expressed regret over the nearly three-day-long riots and unrest across the country that claimed at least 10 lives and left dozens of others injured across the country.
MPA Karim Gabol also quit the party, saying that he joined the PTI in 1996 and many of his family members belonged to the Pakistan Army.
He said May 9 attacks on sensitive installations were “very painful” and added that for this reason, he decided to end his 27-year-long association with the party.
Before them, PTI Member of National Assembly (MNA) Mahmood Baqi Maulvi also quit the party citing the same reasons.
The development comes after the high-powered National Security Committee (NSC) endorsed the Corps Commander Conference's decision to hold the trial of arsonists under the Army Act, Official Secrets Act, and other concerned laws under the Constitution.
The NSC, while strongly condemning military installations' acts of arson for the sake of political motives and personal interests, declared to observe May 9 as "Black Day" at the national level.
The participants of the NSC meeting expressed complete solidarity and support for the armed forces. The meeting expressed the resolve that desecration and military installations and public property were intolerable and pledged to bring all the culprits to task.
Earlier, a Special Corps Commanders’ Conference — with Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir in the chair — had also expressed the resolve to hold the trial of abettors, planners and miscreants involved in attacks on military installations and public property under the Army Act and the Official Secret Act.