Speculation is rife that Nilofar Bakhtiar, against whom a 'fatwa' was issued for hugging a French paratrooper in Paris, has resigned.
ISLAMABAD: Speculation is rife here that Pakistan Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar, against whom a 'fatwa' was issued by radical clerics for hugging a French paratrooper in Paris, has resigned.
However, there was no official confirmation of this.
Bakhtiar had not been coming to office for the last four days and also did not attend the Senate and National Assembly sessions during the last week. She was also visibly cut off from the capital's social and diplomatic scene, 'The News' reported.
Significantly, she was not present in the ruling PML-Q meeting called by President Pervez Musharraf and stayed away from the dinner hosted by him.
Bakhtiar's office has been regretting her absence from all official functions since she returned from a tourism festival in Singapore last week.
Local online news agency, however, quoted officials as saying that there was no substance in these reports.
The minister has not given any statement anywhere which creates impression about her resignation, they said.
Bakhtiar, an activist for women's rights, reportedly felt bad after the PML-Q Chief did not back her in the wake of criticism from the party following issuance of a fatwa against her by the clerics of Lal Masjid here, who also asked the government to remove her.
Following criticism from the party for her 8,000-foot para jump in Paris during a fundraiser for the quake-affected children of Pakistan after which she was patted by her 71-year-old French trainer with a hug, Bakhtiar quit the post of President of PML-Q women's wing saying that she was too tied up with the affairs of her ministry.
She quit the party post after PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujat Hussain, who negotiated with the clerics to end their stand-off with the government over their demand to impose Shariah law in Islamabad, apparently did not back her during the criticism within the party.
She also said she feared for her life following the 'fatwa' against her, which she termed as an attempt to discredit her.
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