ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman was reported to have resigned late on Friday night, and after two days of contradicting statements, the government has finally acknowledged that she has resigned.

According to widely circulated reports, Sherry Rehman, in a dramatic late-night development on Friday, resigned following differences over government’s handling of the electronic media and insistence by President Asif Zardari and his close aides to impose further restrictions on private news channels.

After initially dismissing these reports as baseless and false while talking to the Daily Times, Presidential Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar confirmed the news on State TV. Babar announced that Qamar Zaman Kaira would serve as the interim Information Minister for the government.

Highly-placed sources told Dawn that Ms Rehman had a series of heated arguments with senior members of the government when some television channels were ‘penalised’ for airing what were perceived as anti-government views during the lawyers’ long march.

The sources said that when Ms Rehman failed to persuade President Zardari and other members of his team and when she was cornered by some members and even blamed for her failure to ‘control’ the media, she decided to quit the coveted post of information minister.

Despite repeated attempts Dawn could not get in touch with Sherry Rehman.

Ms Rehman was regarded as one of the most prominent members of the federal cabinet and she had, for the past one year, single-handedly tackled the print and electronic media, sometimes in a very hostile environment.

But some members of the government had been opposed to her and had campaigned to dislodge her.

The former journalist initially ignored these moves, but finally decided to quit when her request to go soft on the media failed, the sources added.