Punjab food minister Aleem Khan decides to resign

• I will resign from my post when PM Imran Khan allows it, Aleem Khan says.
• Says he has sent his resignation multiple times to PM.
• Punjab cabinet expected to undergo changes in coming days.

LAHORE: PTI leader Aleem Khan has decided to step down from his position as the food minister of Punjab, but Prime Minister Imran Khan has reportedly not accorded his approval yet.

The minister told Geo News that he has twice sent his resignation to the premier and also presented it to him during a meeting, but PM Imran Khan has not accepted it to date.

The minister said he wanted to resign due to "personal reasons".

"I asked the prime minister six months back to allow me to step down [...] and when he allows, I will resign from my post," the minister told Geo News.

The federal cabinet earlier this week approved the appointment of Dr Kamran Ali Afzal as the new Punjab chief secretary in place of Jawad Rafique Malik.

The cabinet also approved the appointment of Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) director-general additional IGP Rao Sardar as Punjab police chief. He will replace incumbent Punjab IG Inam Ghani.

The appointments were made based on a summary forwarded to the cabinet by the Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar.

The Punjab government is changing the provincial IGP for the sixth time, making Sardar the seventh IG of the province in the PTI's tenure.

On the other hand, the chief secretary for Punjab has been changed four times since the PTI came to power, making Afzal the fifth chief secretary during the PTI's three-year tenure.

Following the shuffling of the top bureaucrats, according to Geo News, the provincial cabinet might also witness some other changes in the coming days.