Srinagar, December 6: Haseeb Drabu, former finance minister of Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday announced to quit the People's Democratic Party (PDP). Haseeb Drabu shared his resignation letter on his official Twitter handle, saying: "Bidding Adieu to PDP. Another phase of life over."

In a letter addressed to PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Drabu said he had not been associating with party affairs for some time now. He said since he had won elections on PDP ticket, he thought it morally incorrect to resign as long as the state Assembly was intact.

“I don’t agree with the timing and manner in which it was done. It doesn’t credit either the democratic system or its custodian participants with any glory, whatsoever. Be that as it may, the time has come for me to bid adieu!” Drabu, who was the editor of a business daily earlier in his career, said.

“Even though I have not been a dissident… I have disengaged myself from party affairs for quite some time now,” he wrote in the letter. He said he did not believe in precipitating the matter because he thought it to be morally and ethically wrong to leave the party under whose aegis he had contested his maiden elections to the state assembly.

In September, he had turned down his nomination to the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC), saying it “lacks authority” and its reorganisation appeared to “an appeasement than atonement”. He was first inducted into the PAC by then PDP patron and former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed after he joined the party in 2014.

In March this year, Drabu was removed from the post of finance minister for his remark that the situation in the state should not be seen as a political problem. Notably, Drabu's resignation was rejected by the PDP two years ago.

After Imran Ansari, Drabu is the second leader to abandon the party after Governor Satypal Malik dissolved the state assembly on November 21.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 06, 2018 08:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).