ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has expressed his reservations on the resignation of former federal law minister Zahid Hamid.
Credible sources have disclosed that Nawaz Sharif is annoyed and upset on the matter of seeking resignation from Zahid Hamid for ending the Faizabad sit-in. Sources said that Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had earlier threatened to take alarming steps if Zahid Hamid did not tender resignation and if crackdown was launched against protesters.
On the other hand, after tendering his resignation, Zahid Hamid has refused to head NAB parliamentary committee, so committee meeting was postponed.
Earlier, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had accepted the resignation of Zahid Hamid after he voluntarily stepped down from his post late on Sunday. The decision came in wake of the protests across the country following Saturday’s crackdown by the police and paramilitary personnel on Islamabad sit-in by a religious group.
Meanwhile, according to sources privy to the development, senior PML-N leaders expressed their reservations on Hamid’s resignation in a high-level consultative meeting held in Islamabad on Sunday.
The senior party leaders were of the opinion that law minister’s resignation will belittle the government. However, Shehbaz Sharif maintained the stance that in view of normalising the situation, resignation should be given.
The chief minister, after the party meeting in Islamabad, flew to Lahore where he held a one-hour meeting with Hamid and compelled him to resign, which the latter accepted.
