LAHORE – The beleaguered Punjab Finance Minister Rana Asif Mehmood finally relinquished the charge of his department late Thursday night; following which, Education Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman was given additional charge of the department to enable him present the annual budget in Punjab Assembly on June 9. Punjab Government’s spokesperson, Senator Pervaiz Rashid while confirming the development said that there should be no ambiguity in anybody’s mind that Rana Asif was not a Finance Minister any more and that Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman will present the budget in his place. It may be recalled here that following the surfacing of a controversy about dual nationality of Rana Asif Mehmood, the PML-N leadership had asked him to resign, telling him further that party could no longer afford to keep him as Finance Minister after this episode. Talking about the fate of Rana’s Assembly membership, sources in the PML-N told this scribe that party leadership would wait till the decision of the Lahore High Court which resumes hearing of the case against him on June 13. Rana Asif, through his lawyer, had confessed before Justice Ata Bandial that he was a dual nationality holder.   Earlier, during the day, Rana Asif told reporters outside Punjab Assembly that he had himself requested the party leadership to absolve him of the responsibility of presenting the budget following what he called his media trial.He complained that media had been very unfair to him by becoming a party with the vested interests who were eyeing his minority seat. Without naming anybody, Rana alleged that one of the members of his minority community from within the PML-N was behind the conspiracy who also filed a writ petition in Lahore High Court against him. Rana insisted that he was a Christian by birth and was wrongly depicted a Muslim in NADRA record which stood corrected now. He also said that there was no pressure on him from the party leadership to resign, adding, that he would relinquish the charge of his department if asked by Mian Shahbaz Sharif. It also merits mentioning here that Punjab Finance Minister has been forced to resign following a decision by the Supreme Court on dual nationality case. Rehman Malik and Farah Naz Ispahani of PPP have already been penalised through suspension of their respective membership of the Senate and the National Assembly.  It was in this background that the Opposition in Punjab Assembly on Tuesday raised the issue of Rana’s dual nationality and threatened that it would not allow a “fraudulent and a cheat” to present the budget.