ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi resigned from the government on Wednesday, two weeks after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) barred him from temporarily discharging his duties as special assistant to the prime minister on a petition moved against his appointment by Awami Muslim League (AML) president Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.
In his letter addressed to Shehbaz Sharif on June 1, Abbasi said he won’t be able to “perform at present” and requested the prime minister to accept his resignation.
Subsequently, on Thursday, a Cabinet Division notification said Sharif accepted the resignation under Schedule V-A of the Rules of Business, 1973, and removed Abbasi from the office with immediate effect.
Abbasi — who was convicted and prisoned for life by an anti-narcotics court in July 2018, just days before the general elections, in a case related to the supply of ephedrine to a drug smuggler — was made minister days after Shehbaz Sharif assumed the top office on April 11.
He, however, wasn’t assigned a portfolio.
Days after his appointment, Ahmed moved the high court against the development, observing it was “illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and violative of the principles of good governance and the rule of law”.
During the last hearing in the case on May 17, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah expressed hope that Abbasi would not discharge his duties as minister until the next hearing. “If somebody is a convict, he ceases to hold a public office,” he remarked.
