Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan dashed to Lahore on Thursday with a one-point agenda - to frustrate the opposition parties’ attempts aimed at ousting him from the Prime Minister’s Office through a no-trust motion in the National Assembly.
A day earlier, he had made a similar high-profile visit to Karachi to win over estranged partners of the government’s allied party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
Whether the prime minister’s efforts bear fruit or not, one thing is for sure: Never in recent history has there been such heated political activity, bitter rivalry and below-the-belt verbal attacks between the government and opposition parties.
In his meeting with the Governor of Punjab, Chaudhry Mohammed Sarwar, Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPs and the allied parties’ leaders, Khan reiterated his resolve that he would not spare his opponents once he foiled the no-trust move.
The opposition parties — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Pakistan People’s Party — have already submitted a joint requisition with the National Assembly’s Secretariat to call the assembly’s session and conduct voting on the no-confidence motion.
Storm in the teacup
The move by the three major opposition parties stirred up a storm and there are meetings of allied parties with the opposition as well as the government representatives, and soon there will be a clear picture about who will come out successful.
While addressing a meeting of his party workers at Governor’s House Karachi a day earlier, Khan rubbished the no-trust move and said this was the moment he was waiting for. While referring to the joint meeting of Asif Ali Zardari of the PPP, Shehbaz Sharif of the PML-N and Maulana Fazlur Rehman of JUI-F, the premier said ‘thugs and plunderers’ of the national wealth had made an alliance against him. “This in fact has made my job easier and once I foil the no-trust move, I shall start settling scores with them and will begin by targeting Asif Zardari who has made the lives of the people of the Sindh miserable,” said Khan. His words were, “My gun will be pointed at Zardari.”
While reacting to Khan’s words, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday used the same harsh and bitter tone and warned Khan. “Threats hurled by Imran at Asif Ali Zardari are intolerable,” said Bilawal and asked the premier to be ready for the consequences. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad Bilawal warned the prime minister saying, “You won’t be able to forget what I do to you.”
Numbers game
For a no-confidence motion to be successful, the opposition parties are required to show a simple majority, 172 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) of the total 342-member National Assembly.
According to the party-wise breakup, Imran Khan’s ruling PTI has 155 MNAs, PML-N has 84, PPP 56, MMA (JUI-F) 15, MQM 7, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) 5, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) 4 and 4 Independents.
Pir Pagara’s Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) has 3 seats while Sheikh Rashid’s Awami Muslim League (AML), Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamhoori Wattan Party (JWP) have one seat each.
Currently, the Prime Minister enjoys support of the allies, namely, PML-Q, MQM, BAP, GDA, Independents and a few one-member parties.
The Opposition parties however claimed to have won the support of not only the government’s allies but also from within the ruling PTI, particularly from Punjab, where there is resentment among the PTI MPs over the ‘poor’ performance of the Chief Minister.
This is something that has upset the entire hierarchy of the government forcing the prime minister to meet his allies as well as MNAs.
