New Delhi: Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday alleged he had received a request from Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to reinstate Navjot Singh Sidhu in his cabinet.
Making the startling revelation at a press conference to announce seat sharing in Punjab with ally BJP, Captain Amarinder said he sacked Sidhu because of ‘incompetence’ and received recommendation from the Pakistan PM a few weeks later to take him back.
“The Pakistan Prime Minister had sent a request, saying if you can take back Sidhu into your Cabinet I will be grateful, he is an old friend of mine. You can remove him if he does not work,” he said.
Capt Amarinder said that when Sidhu was thrown out of the cabinet in 2019, there was a recommendation message from Pakistan that he should be reinstated and if he does not work properly, he should be removed.
“I had never met Mr. Khan or knew him personally, so I was not only surprised to see such a message soon after the Congress’s victory in Punjab, but I was also shocked that such a person should be given a ministerial post,” he said.
He said he had advised Congress President Sonia Gandhi not to take Sidhu in the party. Capt Amarinder, who quit the Congress after he was made to resign from the CM’s post, has formed his own party Punjab Lok Congress and is contesting Punjab assembly polls with BJP and Sukhdev Dhindsa’s Shiromani Akali Dal – Sanyukt.Â
