Hanif Abbasi resigns as SAPM amid appointment controversy

ISLAMABAD: Following the controversy surrounding the appointment of senior PMLN leader Hanif Abbasi as a special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM), he tendered his resignation on Thursday.

Confirming the news, Abbasi expressed gratitude to PM Shehbaz Sharif for reposing confidence in him, Geo News reported. Last month, Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah stopped Abbasi from working, saying that a person convicted in any case is ineligible to hold anypublic office in the country.

On May 6, former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed challenged a notification over the appointment of PMLN’s Abbasi as an SAPM. According to the petition, Abbasi has been convicted in an ephedrine quota case against which an appeal regarding his sentence is pending in the Lahore High Court. The petitioner said that a convicted person cannot be appointed as

the SAPM.

Earlier, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had issued a notice to the Cabinet Division directing the premier to review the decision following which a summary was sent to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to review the appointment of Hanif Abbasi as his special assistant.