Govt's proposal to deal with no-confidence motion against PM comes to light

Govt's proposal to deal with no-confidence motion against PM comes to light

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - The government s proposal to deal with the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has come to light.

According to sources, an important consultative meeting of government ministers was held at the residence of Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser. The Federal Ministers also attended the meeting.

During the meeting, the issue of no-confidence motion was discussed in detail and strategies for dealing with it were discussed.

Sources said that during the meeting, the ministers suggested to convene a meeting of the National Assembly soon.

On the day of the no-confidence motion, only one member of the government should be present in the National Assembly.

Government members should be instructed not to attend the meeting on the day of voting.

PTI has enough numbers to foil no-trust move: Fawad

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Wednesday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had enough numbers to foil the opposition’s no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He said the prime minister had support of more than 179 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) and the number might touch 184 with the inclusion of five more legislators of other political parties in the PTI’s ranks.

The PTI leadership had already requested NA Speaker Asad Qaiser to summon the session at the earliest as the country could not afford political instability amid the global recession, he said while addressing a news conference along with Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar.

Fawad rejected the opposition’s claim of having the support of 185 MNAs. It was for the opposition to manage the support of 172 MNAs at the time of voting on the no-trust motion.

“I challenge the opposition parties to show their people in the media if they have enough numbers,” he added.

At the outset, the minister recapped the 1989 political episode when a no-confidence motion was moved against the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

“I will take back you to the time of 1989 when a no-confidence motion was brought (against the prime minister) for the first time in the country’s history, with Nawaz Sharif, IJI (Islami Jamhoori Ittehad) and even Fazlur Rehman introducing the horse-trading culture in the politics.”

It was the time when the politics of ‘Changa Manga’ was introduced with the then rivals, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif buying the loyalties of parliamentarians through large sums of money.

The two adversaries had today joined hands and again brought the horse-trading back to oust a democratically elected prime minister in order to save themselves from the corruption cases, he added.

They were trying to make bids to buy the loyalties of MNAs, who would be shifted to Chnaga Manga, he said. However, their foul play would not work now as the legislators were not ready to sell their conscious, he added.

Fawad said Fazlur Rehman had also joined their bandwagon as his politics also revolved around his own vested interests. Fazl, he alleged, used to get funds from foreign powers, besides getting diesel permits from the then prime minister in 1993.

He accused the opposition leaders of offering bribe to some PTI MNAs for winning their support. “Three of our MNAs, including two females, have told the PM about the offers from the opposition. One of the members was offered Rs 10 crores (Rs 100 million) on Tuesday.”

The opposition’s such tactics were highly condemnable and the only hurdle in the way of such “political dealers” was PM Imran Khan who was committed to recover looted public money from them, he added. Ruling out dialogue with the opposition on any issue, he said: “We have tried our best to sit with them on electoral and other reforms, but they did not cooperate with us.”

Fawad said that the PTI had already proved its majority in the Senate and defeated the joint opposition in the Parliament multiple times by getting passed the bills of national importance.

“Imran Khan is the second prime minister of Pakistan who has voluntarily taken a vote of confidence from the National Assembly,” he remarked.

The minister also mocked PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for his so-called march and his slip of tongue during the rally. Bilawal had said “Islamabad may kaampein taang rahi hain.”

Highlighting the lukewarm response received by the PPP from Punjab, he said it had a weak vote bank in the province where nobody was ready to get their ticket for the next general election scheduled in 2023.

The minister also lambasted the PPP chairman for ruthlessly using the resources of Sindh government to make the so-called march successful.

No-trust move ‘political conspiracy’ & ‘attack’ on national economy: Hammad

Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar Wednesday described the opposition parties’ no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan as a ‘political conspiracy’ to target the democratically elected government and a blatant ‘attack’ on the national economy, which was growing at the rate of 5.5 percent annually.

“Pakistan’s economy is on the consistent growth trajectory despite the world economic recession mainly caused by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he said while addressing a news conference here along with Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain.

He said the no-confidence motion was not only a ‘political conspiracy’ but also an ‘attack’ on national economy to shatter the confidence of investors and business community they had in the government’s business-friendly policies.

Hammad assured the business community that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government would gain more strength after turning down all the conspiracies of opposition parties.

“Our economic strategy has become a role model for the whole world after Pakistan successfully tackled the coronavirus, which collapsed the world’s major economies, and is achieving the annual growth rate of 5.5%,” he added.

Besides, he said, all economic indicators, including foreign exchange reserves, exports, large scale manufacturing and remittances, were moving in the right directors and witnessing substantial increase with each passing day.

The minister said the achievements were difficult for opposition parties to digest, and they wanted to dent the national economy and the country’s image at international level.

He said the PTI government had reduced per liter price of petrol and diesel by Rs 10 each and Rs 5 per unit of electricity despite that fact the per barrel oil price in international market had reached $130 and the increasing ‘economic tensions’ due to Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“The United States has asked its companies not to export its products to Russia and [in retaliation] Russia also announced to stop exporting its products to the Western countries. Both are the big countries and have a very big energy basket,” he elaborated the prevailing international energy scenario.

The PTI government, Hammad said, after coming into power stabilized the national economy that was badly ruined by the past regime of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. Now the industrial revolution was getting momentum, exports stood at $30 billion, fuel prices decreased considerably in contrast to international market trends.

“It was not an easy task, for which tough decisions have been taken and then we are able to bring the country out of the storm, and moving forward with the full strength and force.”

He expressed confidence that the opposition’s no-confidence motion would fail as the government had more than the required number in the National Assembly.

He vowed that after failure of the move, the PTI government would get further strength as the people were standing by the prime minister realizing that Pakistan’s policies were being acknowledged internationally after decades.

“We will give the opposition a surprise, following which we will emerge as a more strong government for the remaining term. And we will come for the next term with a heavy mandate to advance our reforms programme.”

The minister said the people knew that PM Imran Khan was the leader of such a stature whom the international community listened to attentively. “Pakistanis feel proud whatever the stand has been taken by the prime minister as it matches with their aspirations regarding the country’s strategic and independent foreign policy.”