Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday terminated the basic party membership of Faisal Vawda, days after a contentious press conference that was disowned by the party leadership.

The Wednesday press conference, in which he said the party’s march to Islamabad would be “bloody”, was panned by the party leadership and spurred the issuance of a show-cause notice.

The termination, a letter of which was tweeted by PTI’s official Twitter account today, comes after Vawda failed to “respond to the notice within the stipulated timeline” — that was given to him to clarify his stance.

Vawda has yet to publicly comment on the matter.

He was issued a show-cause notice and his party membership was suspended after his press conference — held that same day — was loaded with claims that were deemed to be “against party policies and guidelines”.

In his media talk, he claimed that the establishment had “no role in his [Arshad Sharif’s] killing” and that Sharif had no threats while staying in Pakistan.

He had also stated that PTI’s long march will be a “bloody” one with “deaths and funerals” of innocent people due to a “conspiracy”.

His allegations were met with great disapproval from PTI leaders, including PTI Sindh President Ali Haider Zaidi who tweeted that “Vawda tried to damage our long march”.

PTI leader Asad Umar had also declared in a tweet that Vawda’s “statement does not represent party policy and views”.

Yesterday, Vawda had tweeted that he “kept trying to make Khan sahab understand, explained to him and emphasised that two confidants, three snakes and a few maggots are taking his political hard work of 26 years on some other path; that caused the country harm, benefitted the PDM and resulted in confrontation with institutions.”

“We were very close to a compromise. Will reveal their names soon,” he added.