The joint opposition would now consider the disgruntled lawmakers of the ruling party for the proposed no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan as the Chaudhrys of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) ensured the premier yesterday that they would continue supporting him.
The leaders of the opposition parties have started gathering in Islamabad to chalk out the strategy to oust PM Khan through a vote of no confidence. The opposition parties have also started legal and constitutional consultation over the prospects of no-trust motion with experts.
According to sources, it has been decided that the opposition would move the motion against the leader of the house (PM) without the support of government allies as they would rely on disgruntled lawmakers hailing from Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).
Sources claimed that the opposition would first submit the requisition to convene the session of the National Assembly. The speaker was bound as per the rules to convene the session within 14 days after the submission of the requisition.
“The motion against the PM will be moved jointly by the opposition in the session,” said sources, while adding that the speaker would have to take a decision over the motion within a week.
The opposition would need only 10 more members of national assembly (MNAs) to reach the magic number of 172 as the opposition alliance was now standing at 162 while the ruling alliance consisted of 179 MNAs. The opposition was now relying on the disgruntled PTI MNAs instead of the coalition partners of PM Khan and opposition leaders were quite hopeful that they would get the support of over a dozen MNAs hailing from the treasury benches.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also claimed on Wednesday that they would reach the magic number even without the support of Chaudhrys of PML-Q who had five MNAs.
Similar views were also expressed by Ahsan Iqbal who said that around two dozen MNAs of PTI were in contact with the opposition parties. “These MNAs don’t want to go into next polls with the baggage of PTI due to hyper inflation and unemployment,” Iqbal said, while speaking to a private TV channel.
According to sources, PML-N was in contact with 18 PTI MNAs while the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had the support of five and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) had won two MNAs who sat on the treasury benches. PML-N has ensured party tickets to these MNAs in next elections and attempts are also being made to win five more MNAs. These five MNAs were likely to get high offices in next setup.
Meanwhile, PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif said that PM Khan was deceiving both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the people of Pakistan by announcing fake relief packages. Shehbaz said that he was praying that Imran Niazi would not take a U-turn in the coming days on the price of petrol and electricity in his so-called package.
The PML-N president further added that the economic, national and public interests were being sacrificed to save the sinking ship of PM Khan and his cronies’ politics.
He question that, “If the petrol price had come down then why had inflation not come down?”
