The National Assembly on Thursday expressed “complete” trust in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s leadership as the government continues to face challenges from the Supreme Court over the date of elections.
The motion was introduced by the foreign minister and the Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.
The motion, moved in the National Assembly by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, stated, “The National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan reposes its full confidence in the leadership of Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, as the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
A total of 180 Members of the National Assembly voted in favor, as opposed to 174 when Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the prime minister last year.
The government decided to ask for a trust vote after the National Assembly rejected a money bill put out by the government to fund the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The lower house of parliament rejected a money measure for the first time in the nation’s history.
The Supreme Court ruled that the prime minister must always have a majority in the National Assembly while debating a petition brought by the Ministry of Defense to hold national elections on the same day, which the top court eventually deemed “inadmissible.”
