Agency report
Islamabad, May 24: Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Wednesday turned down the resignation of Tourism Minister Nilofar Bakhtiar against whom a fatwa was issued by radical clerics for hugging a French paratrooper at a Paris show.
"I have not accepted her resignation," Aziz was quoted as saying by state run APP news agency after a meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q.
Bakhtiar, who was apparently miffed at being removed as the chief of the women's wing of PML-Q soon after the edict was issued against her, had said she had resigned because of the malicious criticism that followed the incident.
Aziz on Wednesday clarified that her removal as president of the women's wing had nothing do with the fatwa issued against her by radical clerics of Lal Masjid.
Earlier report:
From Daijiworld archives - Nilofar Bakhtiar in Mangalore: