Nehal retracted resignation to remain politically alive

Sources say even President Mamnoon, Mushahid Ullah not on talking terms with Hashmi

LAHORE: The PML-N’s troubled Senator Nehal Hashmi, who is facing wrath of the party due to his controversial statement against judiciary and the joint investigation team probing the Sharifs offshore properties, decided to take back his resignation from Senate in a bid to keep himself politically alive.



Source told the Express Investigation Cell that during the PML-N’s Sindh leaders meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss political grouping in the party’s Sindh chapter, the PM had castigated Hashmi and warned that he would be expelled.

Hashmi, who has confessed that his controversial statement was a blunder on his part, had recently invited friends to his residence to discuss his future course of action. During this meeting, his friends had reportedly counseled him not to hand in his resignation.

They gave him example of PPP senators Zulfiqar Khosa and Baber Awan, who have been sidelined by their party leadership but who have not handed in their resignations and are waiting in hope that they will be absolved by the leadership someday.

You will become history if you resign, Nehal was reportedly told.

Sources in the party said President Mamnoon Hussain, who was the one to recommend Hashmi for Senate, is also not on speaking terms with him now. Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan has also not been talking to Hashmi for the last many months.



Interestingly, Nehal’s name had also surfaced – in view of his Urdu speaking background – when portfolio of the ministry of environment was taken back from Mushahid Ullah Khan after his controversial 2015 interview to BBC.