Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s has resigned from as PML-N’s vice-president, party leader Muhammad Zubair confirmed on Wednesday.

The news was initially reported in a news report early on Wednesday in The News.

Zubair said that as an long-serving worker of the party and a former prime minister, holding a position does not make a difference to Abbasi. However, he added that the party ‘needs’ him.

The News report

A report in Wednesday’s The News by Saleh Zafir had claimed that Abbasi has stepped down as senior vice president of the party.

The report claimed that Abbasi had told him of the decision in parliament on Tuesday evening and that Abbasi hoped to continue to contribute to political discourse through his ‘Reimagining Pakistan’ seminars.

A subsequent report by Geo TV’s Nausheen Yousaf added that Abbasi had stepped down a day after Maryam Nawaz was elevated to chief organiser in the party. He is said to have made up his mind after Maryam was given the position without consultation with senior party leaders.

He denied making a statement to the media and said his resignation has not been accepted yet.

“I hope she succeeds”

Although the news reports about his resignation was still hours away from coming to the surface, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi opened up about his views on Maryam Nawaz’s appointment and his vision for ‘Reimagining Pakistan’ on Spot Light with Munizae Jahangir on Aaj News.

“There is no disagreement,” he said when asked about his relations with Maryam Nawaz.

When Jahangir prodded him whether Maryam’s elevation to chief organiser was a good step and whether it would cement her as Nawaz’s successor, Abbasi said he hoped she would succeed.

“The decision has already been made, now she has to work hard.”

He was asked if he thought Pakistan was heading towards a technocratic government, but he said he was not part of any such plans.

“We do not have any such formula, and we are not part of any formula either.”

Abbasi, along with disgruntled PML-N member Miftah Ismail and former PPP politician Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, has been organising seminars titled ‘Reimagining Pakistan’. The seminars have so far expressed a lack of faith in Pakistan’s political system.

Munizae Jahangir asked why these efforts could not be carried out from within the party to which he replied that any talk of legislation in the National Assembly was reduced to an exchange of abuse.

“In the last five years I have never heard anything in parliament related to Pakistan’s issues,” he said.