Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan made the announcement at the public meeting in Karachi on Sunday and Sardar Asif confirmed it while talking to TV channels.

Political observers were expecting that Sardar Asif, who was education minister in Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s cabinet before he was appointed deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, would be quitting the PPP when he, in media interviews, advised the party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to resign as president.

He accused the president of having damaged the vision of the late Benazir Bhutto.

He alleged that the PPP leadership wanted to convert the country into their fiefdom.

Claiming to be free from stains despite being a part of the “dishonest” dispensation, he said he was fed up with the corruption taking place and decided to join the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf on the invitation of Mr Khan.