ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti resigned this week for “personal reasons,” his spokesperson confirmed on Saturday, less than two months before Pakistan heads to the polls.
The development takes place at a precarious time for Pakistan, as the South Asian country inches toward polls scheduled for Feb. 8 amid a surge in militant attacks, particularly in northwestern Pakistan.
“The federal minister tendered his resignation to the prime minister on December 13, which was accepted on Friday night,” Bugti’s spokesperson Rizwan Saeed told Arab News over the phone.
Pakistan’s election regulator announced the schedule for polls on Feb. 8 on the Supreme Court’s directives Friday night. Pakistan’s law bars any member of a caretaker set-up from contesting elections, prompting speculation Bugti stepped down to contest the upcoming polls.
Saeed did not comment when asked whether Bugti would contest elections from his home constituency in Dera Bugti.
Bugti, 42, is a member of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP). He was elected as a senator from Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province in 2021. He previously served as interior minister for Balochistan after winning the election in 2013.
Separately, two members of the Balochistan government confirmed they had resigned as well.
“I have resigned as minister and the chief minister of Balochistan has accepted my resignation,” Nawabzada Jamal Khan Raisani, provincial minister for youth, sports and culture, told Arab News.
Sardarzada Umair Muhammad Hassani, adviser to the chief minister for mines and mineral department, confirmed he had stepped down as well.
“For now, I have just resigned from the provincial cabinet but let’s see what the future may hold,” Hassani told Arab News.