Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman has resigned as Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington with immediate effect, owing mostly to the fact that her appointment was a political one.
Sources privy to the matter confirmed her resignation quoting sources in the Pakistani embassy in Washington.
Sherry has sent her resignation to Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso.
President Asif Ali Zardari had handpicked her for the slot. She was appointed envoy to the US on November 23, 2011 succeeding Husain Haqqani.
Before her appointment, she was serving as federal minister for information and broadcasting. Sherry said that office from March 2008 until March 2009.
Back in the day, Sherry’s appointment, came as a surprise, for then commentators were expecting a apolitical figure having warm ties with Pakistan’s powerful army.
Sherry, who had been a strong advocate of women’s and minority rights faced death threats for her calls to reform the blasphemy laws in Pakistan.
She served as a member of the National Assembly (MNA) from 2002 to 2007, where she acted as the central information secretary. During this time, she was also the president of policy planning for the PPP and served on the party’s Foreign Relations Committee.
In 2013, Sherry was accused of committing blasphemy, a crime that carries the death penalty in Pakistan, “in connection with a 2010 TV talk show”. She was accused by Muhammad Faheem Gill, who went to the Supreme Court with his complaint after police refused to register it. The court ordered police in Multan to investigate the issue.