Faisal denied the other day that the FIA conducted raid on Ahmed Ali’s factory on his direction or any person was harassed.

The communication minister, belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, has brought the raid issue to the notice of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali as well his party leadership. It was after that that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad strongly protested to the federal government against the raid and subsequently further proceedings were immediately halted.

Sources close to the communication minister told The News that Faisal was annoyed with Ahmed Ali for stopping the National Highway Authority (NHA) to allow him (interior minister) to inaugurate a bridge near his native Jhang district at the behest of Punjab Chief Minister Ch Pervaiz Elahi.

Faisal had got sanctioned Rs 200 million from the prime minister for constructing the bridge and requested Jamali that he should be allowed to inaugurate the bridge. The premier had agreed to it.

However, the Punjab chief minister did not have the same opinion. The inauguration of the bridge is yet to be performed by somebody.

Ahmed Ali believed that the moment Faisal came to know that he was out of the federal cabinet, he let loose the FIA against his prestigious pharmaceutical company to teach him a lesson for ordering the NHA not to let the interior minister to perform inauguration of the bridge, sources said.

It was because of this controversy that the prime minister, during his recent visit to Jhang, was the guest of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam (PML-N) MNAs and MPAs of the area, instead of Faisal, who is the chief leader of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians-Patriots (PPPP-P). However, Jamali had also made an appearance with Faisal during his visit to show solidarity with him being a partner in the ruling coalition.

From day one, the interior minister and the Punjab chief minister are having no smooth relationship. After the assassination of Maulana Azam Tariq, they had a heated argument in a recent federal cabinet meeting over the question of law and order and working of police in the Punjab province.

Ahmed Ali’s resignation has also to do a lot with his attempt to secure control over the giant state-run organisations like the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) and the NHA etc, which are headed by serving or retired military generals.

The communications minister’s recent confrontation with the NHA, fully publicised in the press, was also a factor behind his resignation, which was hardly voluntary.

The sources said that Ahmed Ali, a business tycoon in his own right, had also objected to a recent PNSC deal.