22 PTI MNAs want to jump ship: Abbasi

Former premier and senior PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that a no-confidence motion against the ruling PTI will be tabled as and when the required numbers are achieved.

Addressing the media in the federal capital, the PML-N leader maintained that no-trust move was a part of parliamentary democracy.

“There is an unconstitutional interference in our system,” he said.

“Whenever the crutches are removed, the government will go home within 24 hours,” he added.

Read PDM, PPP will bag only ‘humiliation’: Rashid

“Twenty-two MNAs of the PTI do not want to be with their party. The country is hurtling towards devastation and collapse and the only solution is fair and immediate elections.”

Responding to a question, the former premier maintained that his party remained in touch with the PPP. “We are united for the future of Pakistan.”

On Saturday, the PML-N and the PPP agreed to make joint efforts and use every option at their disposal to oust the PTI-led government, while the former also promised to give consideration to the latter’s suggestion of moving a no-confidence motion in parliament.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif invited PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his father, former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, to his residence in Model Town, Lahore for lunch.

The PML-N side told the PPP that it would take its no-trust proposal to its central executive committee meeting and later with the permission of party supremo Nawaz Sharif, to the platform of the PDM to build a broader consensus on the move.

Later while talking to the media, Shehbaz, flanked by Bilawal and Maryam among other participants of the meeting, said the PML-N had agreed on a common agenda with the PPP of working together for sending the PTI-led government home.

“Every political party has its own manifesto and its own approach. However in times of extreme crisis, political parties should come together for the greater good,” he added.

The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly said with the livelihoods of people in extreme peril, history would not forgive them if they did not come together now and agree on a common agenda to play a responsible role.

(With input from DNA)