Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, while speaking in a jalsa in his constituency on Friday, said he will soon reveal the reason he did not join Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi's cabinet.
Nisar's portfolio has been transferred to Ahsan Iqbal in Prime Minister Abbasi's cabinet, which took oath today (Friday).
Reports of Nisar's misgivings with other PML-N leaders had emerged last month, following which he had announced he would hold a press conference to clear the air. He finally spoke last week, after postponing the talk twice, to announce that he would be resigning from his National Assembly seat and his ministry on the day of the Panamagate verdict because his "heart was no longer in politics".
Nisar had also alleged that certain individuals had tried to distance him from the party leadership by continuously targeting him for his association with the armed forces.
However, a statement by an Interior Ministry spokesperson soon after Nisar spoke said the former minister had actually announced that he had changed his mind about resigning after being put under pressure by friends.
Nisar, who was in Rawat on Friday to inaugurate a hospital and a road project, thanked the people of his constituency for continuously supporting him since 1985, saying that no other politician in the country could claim the honour of having a constituency support them for as long.
"Real loyalty is telling the truth in front of the leader rather than praising him," Nisar said in reference to those around Nawaz Sharif whom he has lately been unhappy with.
He also said that the country was facing serious external threats but everyone seemed caught up in infighting.
In the current political crisis, "we need to strengthen the party first, and no one should have any doubt that this will happen under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif," he said.
