No confidence: Scared of vote, K-P govt reschedules assembly session to May 14

Disgruntled PTI lawmakers, JUI-F join chorus asking K-P governor to seek vote from Khattak

PESHAWAR: Pressure is mounting on the governor to ask the provincial chief minister to seek a vote-of-confidence in the provincial assembly after lawmakers from the ruling PTI and the opposition JUI-F joined the chorus on Thursday.

It came as the government postponed the assembly session to May 14.

Following a similar letter written by the Awami National Party (ANP) earlier in the week, some disgruntled lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) also wrote to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Engineer Iqbal Zafar Jhagra on Thursday, requesting him to ask Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to call for a vote of confidence from the provincial assembly.

From the JUI-F, a letter signed Mufti Said Janan was sent to the governor. From the PTI, the letter had been signed by nine lawmakers who were accused by the party chief of selling their votes in March’s Senate elections, including Yaseen Khalil, Javed Nasim, Qurban Ali, Amjad Afridi, Naseem Hayat, Obaidullah Mayaar, Ziaullah Afridi, Abdul Haq and Wajihuz Zaman.

In both letters, the governor was asked to exercise his powers under Article-130(7) of the Constitution of Pakistan and ask Khattak to take the vote.

Prove allegations

Earlier, the disgruntled lawmakers of PTI had held a news conference in Peshawar where they demanded that senior PTI officials present their evidence that they had sold their votes during the Senate elections and to send the evidence to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) as per their threat.

They said that they will not be providing a reply to the show cause notices served to them by the party.

The disgruntled lawmakers added that if the party fails to provide the evidence, which it claims to have against them, to the anti-corruption watchdog, then the PTI Chairman Imran Khan would be proved as false, leaving him neither Sadiq nor Ameen would not be qualified to hold a public office.

Assembly session delayed

As the PTI struggled to keep a grip on the assembly, the government postponed the session of the provincial assembly.

It withdrew its earlier notification of calling the assembly session for May 3 and replaced it with another notification with another one which stated that the session will now be held on May 14.

At this, the disgruntled lawmakers staged a protest outside the Chief Minister House, stating that Khattak was trying to run from the assembly since he does not enjoy the support of the house any more.

“We will not let him run since he accused us which, if they fail to prove, would result in defamation suits against him,” the disgruntled lawmakers said, adding that the PTI lawmaker took their votes out of the assembly during the Senate elections in 2015.

“After electing Senators in that way, Imran threw us a grand dinner at Bani Gala although they were elected through fraud and they should resign,” the lawmakers demanded.

“Khattak is a political gypsy who has been changing parties and he will now teach us how to do politics?” they asked, adding that Khattak has a 35-year career of robbery in politics.

No vote until governor asks

The chief minister, though, felt secure in procedures, stating that it was the job of the governor to ask him to seek a vote.

Khattak, who later haled a news conference of his own on Thursday, claimed that he still enjoys the support of the house and assurance from the opposition which is why he was still in office.

Regarding the caretaker set-up, Khattak stated that the PTI and the opposition were in negotiations over it.

“We are also discussing the budget with the opposition and will present it in consensus with the opposition,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2018.