Federal ministers Asad Umar and Shah Mahmood Qureshi have asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to remove Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry from the federal cabinet after the latter made startling revelations regarding internal rifts within the ruling party in a media interview, a private news channel reported on Thursday.
According to the channel, the two top Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders met with the premier on Wednesday and pushed him to seek resignation from Chaudhry.
“From Fawad Chaudhry’s interview it seemed as if we are behind the failures,” the reported quoted the two leaders as saying before the prime minister. They said that they did not conspire against Jahangir Tareen, cautioning the premier that if no action is taken against Fawad Chaudhry then it will give an impression of weakness, the report claimed.
Meanwhile, Fawad Chaudhry said politics is not for the “faint-hearted”, vowing to perform as a minister till he has the confidence of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He was responding to Punjab Information Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan, who had asked him to quit.
“I will stay on as a minister till I have the trust of Prime Minister Imran Khan. There is no question of resigning on someone else’s wish,” tweeted Chaudhry on Thursday after calls for his resignation gained momentum.
On Sunday, Chaudhry said that infighting between Foreign Minister Qureshi, Planning Minister Umar and PTI leader Jahangir Tareen has had an adverse impact on the party and has been one of the main reasons behind Prime Minister Imran’s vision not going according to plan.
“There were a lot of expectations from PTI and Imran Khan,” Chaudhry said in an interview with Voice of America. “The public had not elected us or the prime minister to fix nuts and bolts but to reform the system.”
Chaudhry said that problems arose when the government was formed and differences between Umar, Tareen and Qureshi increased. “These differences pushed the entire political class out of the game altogether.”
