Bhaktiar, who had not been attending the office for some time, sent her resignation to PM Shaukat Aziz before he embarked on a foreign tour three days ago.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar has resigned, apparently in protest for not receiving the backing from the ruling PML-Q after she was served with a 'fatwa' by radical clerics for hugging her French paratroop trainer in Paris.
Bhaktiar, who had not been attending the office for some time, sent her resignation to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz before he embarked on a foreign tour three days ago. He is shortly expected to take a decision on it as he has returned.
Her resignation from the Ministership came after she quit as the President of the ruling PML-Q women's wing, which was accepted by the party chief Shujaat Hussain, who incidentally was the government's negotiator to resolve the stand-off with clerics of Lal Masjid -- who issued the fatwa against Bakhtiar - demanding imposition of 'Sharia' law in the capital.
The clerics in their fatwa had asked the government to sack Bakhtiar after she hugged her 71-year-old French paratroop trainer.
Hussain was currently negotiating with the clerics, whose followers now have abducted four policemen in retaliation over the arrest of their cadre, to back off from their call to impose Shariah law in Islamabad.
"Bakhtiar felt let down after she was asked to step down as Chairperson of Women's Wing of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q two months back," 'The News' quoted an official as saying while confirming her resignation.
She has been replaced as women's wing President by Women's Minister Sumaira Mallik, who enjoyed the support of President Pervez Musharraf.
Bakhtiar too had powerful connections as she was closely related to Musharraf's confidant and Secretary to the National Security Council (NSC), Tariq Aziz.
Bakhtiar, a women activist, was not a traditional politician. The PML-Q made her a Senator for a six-year term in 2006. So far, she has no plans to resign from the Senate as well.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}