ISLAMABAD: In a fresh blow to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), MNA Noor Alam Khan, who is also considered a close aide to Asif Ali Zardari, joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday.
Noor Alam Khan announced the decision while talking to media along with PTI chairman Imran Khan. Alam Khan said he was member of PPP's organizing committee and a Member of National Assembly from Peshawar.
He was the richest lawmaker of the lower house of the parliament in 2008 and he declared his personal assets worth billions of rupees.
Speaking on the occasion, Imran Khan welcomed Noor Alam Khan in the PTI and said many PML-N lawmakers were willing to join the PTI.
In an interview with The News last week, the former Member National Assembly (MNA) from NA-3 Peshawar constituency who stayed away from the party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s visit to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said he had not yet decided to join any party but would soon take a decision.
“I have already quit the party. I always raised voice against corruption, but now the same old corrupt faces have been brought forward in the PPP,” he alleged.
Noor Alam claimed he was part of a reformist group in the PPP that was opposing corruption but now all of them, including PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, have been sidelined.
He said that Asif Zardari had ignored those raising voice against corrupt people. “The main reason for my quitting the PPP is the issue of corruption,” he added.
Noor Alam said those who served as ministers in the PPP government and minted money had again been preferred and given prominence by the party leadership.
He said politics could not be done in drawing rooms and one would have to adopt a clear-cut stance on every issue.