Dreshak resigns after quarrel with Elahi

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi and Food Minister Hasnain Bahadur Dreshak were said to be involved in a quarrel over amendments to the Punjab Food Authority rules, sources told The News on Saturday.

The heated discussion in the last cabinet meeting resulted in tendering of resignation by Dreshak as he was not even allowed to record his note of dissent over the issue. A senior cabinet member told The News that the incident was an outcome of an angry outburst between the CM and minister.

No other member of the cabinet was engaged in this heated exchange of words.

It was learnt that the minister vehemently opposed certain amendments which were presented in the cabinet meeting after bypassing his department. As his views were not incorporated into the matter by the chair, the minister insisted that his note of dissent should be made part of the record but to no avail. Consequently, he left the meeting in protest and later tendered resignation.

Dreshak had been elected member of the Punjab Assembly from PP-294 (Rajanpur-II) on a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ticket. He was appointed minister for Energy & Food on August 7, 2022. In a post on the micro-blogging site, he wrote that he had resigned from the ministry due to his personal commitments. “I stood and will continue to stand by the ideology and decisions of our leader Imran Khan. Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is and will always be respected by me,” he wrote.

The sources said the PTI leader and CM were involved in a one-on-one war of words when the latter abruptly interrupted his conversation. Elahi had convened the 6th meeting of the Punjab cabinet on Friday for discussing a 34-point agenda. It may be noted that Hasnain Bahadur Dreshak, son of Nasrullah Khan Dreshak, remained a member of the Punjab Assembly in 2002-07 and functioned as the minister for finance as well.