Punjab food minister resigns after meeting CM

LAHORE: Provincial Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry tendered his resignation after meeting Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar at his office here on Monday.

“Baseless allegations are being levelled with regard to failure in introducing departmental reforms for sometime now and I am ready to present myself for accountability at any forum,” he said.

“I do not consider myself eligible for any post unless proved not guilty," added Samiullah Chaudhry. The CM accepted resignation of Samiullah Chaudhry and also accepted the request of Nasim Sadiq to release him from the post of commissioner Dera Ghazi Khan. Likewise, former director food Zafar Iqbal was relieved of his duties and appointed as an officer on special duty (OSD).

Samiullah Chaudhry stated that he was resigning to prove his innocence, adding that he was ready to sacrifice such ministerial posts to fulfil the agenda of Prime Minister Imran Khan. Former secretary food Nasim Sadiq had requested for his removal from the post of commissioner DG Khan after release of the FIA report, and the CM accepted the request and appointed him as an officer on special duty (OSD).

Samiullah Chaudhry, who hails from Bahawalpur, has volunteered himself after the Punjab government had allegedly failed to handle the wheat issue as per the report of FIA, which had come to surface recently.

Samiullah’s name also hit the headlines last year when he, during a press conference, said that the government must be careful from “the snake in the grass” and his remarks posed many questions related to the issue of governance of Buzdar government.

Between August 2018 till date, after Shahbaz Gill and Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan, he is another noted figure of Punjab government, whose resignation had been accepted. Fayyaz Chohan, who had to resign for a purely different reason last year (remarks against minority community) was restored few months later and now he is working as the Punjab information minister.