Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday strongly refuted claims that he had resigned from his position following a supposed dispute over the arrest of Sialkot’s ADCR by anti-corruption authorities. In a post on X, Asif dismissed the rumors, stating, “The person [here] has expressed his [own] wishes in the post and not the truth.”
Asif’s clarification came in direct response to a post by Zubair Ali Khan, a journalist, who had claimed on X that the defense minister had submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. According to Zubair’s post, Asif’s resignation was sent to Dr. Tauqeer Shah, an adviser in the PM Office, with the condition that either the ADCR be released or his resignation be accepted.
Zubair further detailed that the Sialkot Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), who he claimed had also served as a returning officer in the 2024 general elections, was arrested for financial irregularities and subsequently placed on a five-day remand. The journalist also alleged that Asif had met with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif in Murree, where he expressed his concerns, and was advised to withdraw his resignation. Zubair added that Asif had allegedly gone incommunicado, turning off his phone and moving to an undisclosed location.
The defense minister, however, has explicitly denied these claims, including the one about his resignation. The rumors surfaced amid Asif’s recent public criticism of the country’s senior bureaucracy. He had previously claimed that a large number of officials were purchasing properties in Portugal with the intention of eventually settling abroad and acquiring citizenship.
In a recent post, Asif had alleged that one bureaucrat, known to be close to former Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, had received a staggering Rs4 billion in “Salami” alone at his daughter’s wedding. In a follow-up post on Wednesday, he reiterated his claims, stating that an individual named “Virk” was playing a key role in providing shelter to the bureaucracy and other elites in Portugal.
