PPP’s Mustafa Nawaz Khokar formally resigned as a senator on Thursday, two days after he announced plans to vacate his seat in the upper house of parliament.

“I have formally submitted my resignation today. I’m thankful for the positive response and support across party lines which was far beyond my imagination,” Khokhar tweeted, referring to the appreciation he had received from politicians — mainly PTI leaders — for stepping down as a senator because of the PPP leadership’s unhappiness with his “political positions”.

In a subsequent tweet, Khokar added: “For those who are speculating about my political future, let me state clearly that I’m not joining any political party. I will try hard to maintain my independence.”

PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry responded to Khokhar on Twitter, saying, “A principled resignation tendered”.

He wished the PPP leader good luck for his future endeavours.

The vocal PPP leader had announced his decision to resign from the Senate on Tuesday saying he was told that the PPP leadership was unhappy with him over the “positions” he had taken during the recent political developments.

“Met a senior leader from the party today. He conveyed that the party leadership wasn’t happy with my political positions and wanted my resignation from the Senate. I gladly agreed to resign,” Khokhar had posted on Twitter, without mentioning who had asked him to resign from the Senate seat prior to the completion of his six-year term in March 2024.

He was elected as a senator in March 2018.

Meanwhile, Dawn had reported that several PPP said they were expecting Khokhar to resign not only from the Senate but also from the party since the time when he had quit the key position of the official spokesperson for party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in December 2020.

In December 2020, Khokhar had resigned as the official spokesperson for Bilawal but stated that he would continue to be a part of the PPP.

He had said he would be able to comment and express his thoughts more freely, without any compulsions and responsibility that came with the position of spokesperson of a party head.