ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister Hanif Abbasi resigned Thursday after the Islamabad High Court temporarily barred the PML-N leader from working in that capacity on May 17.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed challenged Abbasi’s appointment in the IHC as SAPM as the latter had been convicted in the ephedrine case in 2019.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appointed Abbasi as his special assistant with the status of federal minister on April 27. However, no portfolio was assigned to Abbasi.

In a hearing of the case on May 9, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah instructed the prime minister to review his decision regarding the appointment of the PML-N leader as his aide.

In July 2018, the Control of Narcotics Substances court handed life imprisonment to Abbasi in the ephedrine quota case.

However, the Lahore High Court suspended the life sentence handed to Abbasi and ordered his release on bail in 2019.