Sherry Rehman quits as Pakistan envoy to US

Sherry Rehman has quit as Pakistan's ambassador to the US, it was reported here Tuesday.

Rehman, a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader, has resigned as Pakistani ambassador to Washington with immediate effect owing to the fact that her appointment was a political one, Geo News reported from Washington.

She sent her resignation to caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso.

Rehman, a former information and broadcasting minister, was appointed as envoy to the US Nov 23, 2011.

Known for her outspoken views, she was made the envoy after Husain Haqqani quit over a secret memo that claimed President Asif Ali Zardari feared a military coup.

Pakistani businessman Mansoor Ijaz had alleged that a senior Pakistani diplomat asked for help in getting a message from Zardari to then chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.

Ijaz alleged that Zardari feared a military takeover following the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in his hideout in Pakistan town of Abbottabad May 2, 2011.

Rehman had resigned as information and broadcasting minister in 2009 due to differences over the government's media policy.

Thereafter, Rehman had led the efforts to reform the blasphemy law after Aasia Bibi, a Christian mother of four, was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad.

She was supported by Punjab governor Salman Taseer and minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti -- both of whom were later shot dead.