Tania Aidrus, special assistant to the prime minister on e-governance and head of the much-touted Digital Pakistan Vision initiative, has announced to resign from her post citing recent criticism levelled against her and the government due to her dual nationality.
Sharing the signed resignation letter on her Twitter page, she wrote, “Criticism levied towards the state as a consequence of my citizenship status is clouding the purpose of Digital Pakistan. In the greater public interest, I have submitted my resignation from the SAPM role. I will continue to serve my country and the PM’s vision to my best ability.”
Criticism levied towards the state as a consequence of my citizenship status is clouding the purpose of Digital Pakistan. In the greater public interest, I have submitted my resignation from the SAPM role. I will continue to serve my country and the PM’s vision to my best ability pic.twitter.com/BWBvBvO6uz
— Tania Aidrus (@taidrus) July 29, 2020
Tania left her job of 12 years at Google where she served in various leadership roles, her last one being “Director, Product, Payments for Next Billion Users”, to join PM Imran Khan’s Digital Pakistan initiative in February, and was appointed SAPM for the same purpose.
Profit has learnt that this resignation was on the cards for close to two months, which is when Jehangir Tareen was practically ousted from the party due to the sugar crisis probe and was the one who arranged the first meeting between Aidrus and the PM last year that materialized into the latter’s vision for ‘Digital Pakistan’. Sources told Profit that Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Azam Khan invited the former SAPM to his office this morning, where Advisor to the Prime Minister on Accountability Barrister Mirza Shahzad Akbar was also present. There she was asked to sign the resignation letter.
When she protested and asked to speak to the prime minister, she was told that this resignation was not optional, that she had to sign it and the PM would not be able to speak to her. Therefore, while the letter points to criticism on Aidrus; foreign nationality being the chief reason for her resignation, the actual motives behind her removal are much different.