Hameed asked me to quit during sit-in: Ex-minister

ISLAMABAD: The then law minister Zahid Hamid had told the Faizabad sit-in commission that former director general, counterterrorism, Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) Faiz Hameed had met him during the protest and asked him to resign from the federal cabinet.

Hamid said that on November 26, 2017 some junior officers of the ISI Lahore came to his residence to take his resignation.

Hamid, who lost his ministry due to the sit-in, gave these details to the members of the commission.

He said he had two meetings with the ISI during the sit-in. The first meeting was with two persons in the Ministry of Law whose ranks were not known to him; they were perhaps colonel-level officers.

He said that they wanted to know his plans, and he told them he would follow the instructions of the then Prime Minister Shahid Khakan Abbasi and party leadership. He said Faiz Hameed met him for the second time and asked if he could consider resigning for a short time to end the crisis created by the sit-in.

He said they thought that if he went on vacation for some time, the TLP people might be satisfied with that too.

Hamid told Faiz Hameed that he had already offered his resignation to the prime minister, but he was not ready to accept it.

The premier told Hamid not to take any pressure. He said Abbasi had stated in a meeting that he would dissolve the government but would not allow his minister to resign.

Hamid further said that unfortunately, when the police action against the sit-in failed, he realised the only alternative would be the intervention of the army, which would not be good.

In this situation, he once again asked the leadership to accept his resignation, and the premier reluctantly agreed to his resignation.

After consulting the then chief minister of Punjab over the phone, Hamid agreed to release news of his resignation before submitting it.

He revealed that during the sit-in, a meeting was arranged between him and other leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) and a TLP delegation. He said he was deeply saddened by the baseless accusations with regard to his faith.

Hamid said that the TLP delegation heard him and categorically said that they withdrew their allegations and the delegation seemed satisfied.