Federal Minister for Science Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen was the reason why Asad Umar stepped down as the finance minister last year in April.

In an interview with the Voice of America, Chaudhry revealed that soon after Imran Khan became prime minister and his party came into governance, quarrels among Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Umar and Tareen began.

Chaudhry continued that Tareen used his influence to get Umar removed from the Cabinet and later Umar got Tareen out. He said the infighting affected the party a lot especially the political class.

Due to this, the minister said, the void was then filled by those people who had no idea about politics and were very new to the party. "You can’t excel when your foundation is shaken," the minister said.

Comparing the PM to Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto when they were in power, Chaudhry said Sharif and Bhutto chose weak people for government posts because their aim was to bring their own children to the centre stage.