ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Friday that the federal government had removed Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar from his post.

The announcement also came hours before a crucial session of the National Assembly on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as a sitting of the Punjab Assembly to elect a new leader of the house following Usman Buzdar's resignation.

It was not immediately clear why the federal government decided to remove Sarwar and the information minister, who announced the development on Twitter, did not provide a reason.

The minister said that the new governor would be announced later. "According to the Constitution, the deputy speaker [of the Punjab Assembly] will be the acting governor," he said.

Sarwar is a former member of the British parliament and had abandoned his political career in Glasgow to serve in Pakistan in 2013. He had joined the PML-N and was made the Punjab governor after the party won the 2013 general elections in the centre as well as in Punjab.

However, he had had resigned from Punjab governor office in January 2015 and immediately joined the PTI. In September 2018, he was sworn in as governor for a second term.