\u2018No pressure\u2019
\n\u201cAfter deliberation, I have now decided to retire from politics,\u201d says Mahmood, a former federal minister
\nIslamabad
\nShafqat Mahmood, a once prominent leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Sunday announced quitting politics but stressed that the decision was not due to coercion.
\n\u201c34 years back, I resigned from a government job and entered politics. But after deliberations, I have now decided to retire from politics,\u201d Mahmood, a former federal minister, said in a post on X, previously known as Twitter.
\nA plethora of politicians left the former ruling party or quit politics altogether following the May 9 attacks on state installations, with the party saying that they were forced to quit the Imran Khan-founded party.
\nThe leaders who deserted the now embattled PTI include Fawad Chaudhry, Asad Umar, Shireen Mazari, Fayazul Hassan Chohan, Maleeka Bokhari, Ali Zaidi, and Musarrat Jamshed Cheema.
\nWhile some leaders have tried joining the party ranks once again, the PTI leadership \u2014 which consists of several new faces \u2014 has decided that deserters would not be brought back to the fold.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no pressure on me [to quit PTI] and neither do I plan on joining any other political party,\u201d Mahmood said, explaining that he took the decision due to \u201ctime\u201d and his \u201cage\u201d.
\nReflecting on his political decades-long career, the former federal minister said he saw several ups and downs. \u201cI have served as a member of the Senate and the National Assembly.\u201d
\nNot only that, he said that he was also appointed as a federal as well as provincial minister. Mahmood, on a lighter note, said he also \u201cvisited\u201d jail during his political career.
\nThe now-former PTI leader said that as the federal education minister, he rolled out the Single National Curriculum for the first time in history and also oversaw education-related affairs during the pressing period of COVID-19.
\nWhen he was the education minister during the coronavirus period, the students were in awe of him as he not only introduced several relaxations but also passed students without exams.
\nHe thanked Khan and PTI for giving him to oppurtunity to \u201cserve\u201d. Mahmood also extended his gratitude towards the voters of his constituency, who elected him to parliament twice.
\n\u201cI am satisfied that I have always performed all my responsibilities honestly and performed at every position as a duty. No one, thank God, has levelled any allegation against me.\u201d
\nRevealing his future plans, Mahmood said that he wanted to spend the rest of his life teaching and writing. \u201cI agree with those who say that the youth should participate in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2018No pressure\u2019 \u201cAfter deliberation, I have now decided to retire from politics,\u201d says Mahmood, a former federal minister Islamabad Shafqat Mahmood, a once prominent leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Sunday announced quitting politics but stressed that the decision was not due to coercion. \u201c34 years back, I resigned from a government job and entered …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":67580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67585,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67573\/revisions\/67585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}