Punjab Additional Advocate General Rameeza Hakeem, one of the senior-most law officers in the state, has quit her post amid infighting within the Punjab Congress. The resignation was accepted Thursday, sources said.
The resignation of Hakeem, who is the wife of Punjab Advocate General Atul Nanda, comes at a time when a section of senior Congress leaders, including Partap Singh Bajwa, have accused the AG's office of not properly dealing with the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing cases.
Sources close to her said that she was upset over political leadership of the party raising fingers at the Advocate General’s office for not defending the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing case properly as the High Court had recently quashed the SIT and its investigation. This had left the government embarrassed.
She sent her resignation to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on June 1 with a request that “it be accepted this time”, the sources said. Hakeem had tendered her resignation back in August 2020 as well, but Singh had refused to accept it.
Responding to Hakeem's resignation, Bajwa said, ''The advocate general's wife resigned, but it would have been better if the AG had tendered resignation.'' Earlier, the senior Congress leader had said that the recent verdict of the high court was a “monumental failure of the advocate general and his office”.
Hakeem had resigned from her post in August last year also, but the Chief Minister had rejected it.
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