PTI leader Pervez Khattak has announced he is stepping down from the party position.

He made the announcement in a video statement, saying he had taken the decision after “consulting friends”.

Khattak, who was the president of PTI’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter, said he was resigning from the party position and he would decide the future course of action after further consulting “friends and party workers”.

He also said “propaganda” being played on television was “not right” and he had taken the decision after careful consideration.

Another party leader Asad Qaiser was also briefly seen in the video but did not speak.

Prior to his announcement, PTI General Secretary Omar Ayub had alleged in a tweet that Khattak, along with another party leader Asad Qaiser, had been detained.

“Pervez Khattak sahib and Asad Qaiser sahib, senior PTI members and part of the notified PTI negotiation committee, have been detained. They were lured on the pretext of meeting them to conduct negotiations,” he tweeted.

The PTI chairman had also alleged the same, saying that the two leaders “called for a meeting by the intelligence agencies and then illegally detained in a safe house […] to quit PTI for their release”.