Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) minister Sheheryar Maher is said to have resigned from the Sindh cabinet in protest of “Sindh Assembly (SA)’s lukewarm response to the National People’s Party (NPP)’s resolution”.
NPP lawmakers, backed by provincial lawmakers from parliamentary parties other than the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), do not want the federal and provincial governments to delete Article 239(4) of the constitution.
In Thursday’s SA session, it was decided that a special committee be formed to examine the merits and demerits of NPP’s resolution, but a deadline for presenting a report could not be set.
This did not sit well with Maher, who, after a brief argument with the SA speaker, left the house, saying, “I don’t want to be a part of a cabinet that needs time to resolve such an issue [of an urgent nature].”
The PML-Q lawmaker, who was apologetic for having used non-parliamentary language against Leader of the House Syed Qaim Ali Shah in a previous post-session media talk, is reported to have resigned from the provincial cabinet. The lawmaker has also, reportedly, conveyed his grievances to the central party leader, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. While I could not reach Maher despite repeated attempts, a coalition partner from another party has confirmed the report of the PML-Q minister’s resignation.