ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar has announced retirement from the polities during a press his much-awaited press conference held here in Islamabad today (Thursday).
“This is the most difficult press conference I’ve ever hosted,” Nisar said adding that, “I’m sorry but I will not be able to take questions after this.”
He said last evening he had decided to leave politics, resign from the National Assembly and his ministerial post on the day the Supreme Court announced its verdict in the Panama Papers case.
“I had decided I will leave politics and the National Assembly membership after the SC decision, whether in favour or against Nawaz Sharif, and not to contest the next election.”
He, however, changed the decision after holding meetings with Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and cabinet colleagues, including Ishaq Dar, Saad Rafique and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and many other friends, he added.
He categorically denied that he was aspiring for the prime minister’s office.
Nisar said his biggest privilege was that he was a member of the National Assembly and represented 500,000 people of his constituency.
“I am proud of my electorate and constituency,” he said, adding that he was now fed up as politics had become ‘a joke and a pack of lies’.
“I want to clarify a lot of things because of rumours. I want to talk about the situation vis-a-vis the Panamagate case,” he said.
The minister further said, “For the past month and a half, I was suddenly excluded from the PML-N’s meetings. I do not know why this was so. I was not invited to these consultative meetings, and I do not attend if I’m not invited.”
“People said I’d missed the train. I don’t just get on any train,” he said. “I’ve been a victim of internal intrigues.”
“I was told by senior leaders not to do this press conference today. I told them I had to,” he continued.
