Opposition agrees on draft of no-trust move

Development comes as Fazl, Shehbaz meet Zardari

ISLAMABAD:

 

In a significant development, opposition parties have “finalised and approved” draft of the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government.

The development came as Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) President Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif visited the Zardari House in Islamabad on Monday to hold a "delegation-level" meeting with Pakistan Peoples Party Co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and other leaders of the party.

One of the legal minds of the opposition party present at the meeting revealed to The Express Tribune that the law experts fed the opposition leaders with possibly all legal aspects and requirements of the vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly. The sources in the opposition parties said the draft was ready but the decision whether to table the no-confidence motion against the prime minister or the National Assembly speaker would be taken at the last moment.

صدر پاکستان مسلم لیگ (ن) و قائد حزب اختلاف شہبازشریف کی مولانا فضل الرحمان کے ہمراہ سابق صدر آصف زرداری سے وفد کی سطح پر اہم ملاقات۔

ملاقات میں موجودہ ملکی سیاسی صورتحال اور عدم اعتماد کی تحریک کے حوالے سے اہم امور پر گفتگو pic.twitter.com/qwOjE4UK6r

— PML(N) (@pmln_org) March 7, 2022

The opposition has long been accusing the speaker of not running the house impartially and always helping the treasury bulldose the legislative business. “The agreement has been reached [and] the announcement will be made at an appropriate time,” a key leader of the opposition revealed to The Express Tribune. “The draft was approved by all opposition parties,” he said, requesting anonymity.

To a question what was the final number the opposition has to show to gain simple majority in the National Assembly, the leader preferred to say only one word: “enough”. For the past few weeks, the opposition parties have upped the ante against the PTI-led government and since then the topic of removing the prime minister or NA speaker through the no-trust motion has gripped the country and left everyone on their toes.

The frequent meetings among leaders of the opposition parties and their decision to approach the government’s allies raised the political temperature to the extent that the government was forced to announce some popular measures to keep the allies as well as the public opinion at their side.
The move coupled with the PPP’s long march was so strong that the Prime Minister himself had to come on the forefront to address grievances of his party lawmakers and the allies’ reservations on the runaway inflation, which has grievously been hurting the popularity of the ruling party and the allies.

To counter the opposition, PM Imran was forced to visit his allies, hold public rallies, announce development schemes and even resort to name calling — all this at the cost of cancelling the federal cabinet’s meeting thrice that the PTI government proudly held every Tuesday and often took credit of holding more cabinet meetings than the total number of meetings held in previous governments’ tenures.

Also read: No-confidence motion to be tabled after long march: Shah

Though the government managed to get favourable statements from PML-Q’s Moonis Elahi, who has been given the portfolio of water resources, the newly-built alliance of estranged PTI leaders — Jahangir Khan Tareen and Aleem Khan — has added enormous pressure on the ruling party and the allies because the combined number of the disgruntled members could well go beyond the total number of the PML-Q votes.

In the meeting at the Zardari House, Fazl and Shehbaz were accompanied by PML-N leaders Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. From the PPP, Syed Naveed Qamar, Murtaza Wahab, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Syed Khursheed Shah were present at the meeting.

Before the meeting, PPP’s leader Khursheed Shah, who had recently hinted that the no-trust motion would be submitted in the assembly when the PPP long march enters Islamabad, met JUI-F and PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to discuss about finalizing modalities of the motion.

Just like the government, the statement issued after Shah-Fazl meeting stated that “homework is complete [and] the motion would soon be presented”. The statement also demanded PM Imran to resign and “have mercy on the nation and the country”. Meanwhile, legal minds of opposition parties have begun to put forth input on the prospects of the ambitious vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The final date for initiating the process of vote of no-confidence will be announced by opposition leaders Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and Molana Fazal ur Rehman soon, he added. Another participant in the meeting revealed that one section within opposition leadership insisted that the events related to March 23 as well as the OIC meeting should not be disturbed in the national interest. “If the process starts in this week, the NA speaker may take two weeks to summon the session for this purpose,” he further stated.

It was also learnt that opposition leadership is fully confident that they have the majority of members to make the no-trust move successful. An opposition lawmaker claimed that a federal minister may also join the opposition move in the next couple of days. Likewise, JUI-F has been active to bring a vote of no-confidence move in Balochistan as well.

Political analysts believe that the biggest dilemma for the present regime is that powerful circles have remained neutral.

Meanwhile, an estranged leader of the ruling party suggested the opposition that the no-confidence move should be initiated in the Punjab Assembly against Chief Minister Usman Buzdar first.
The opposition has planned to bring a no-confidence move against the PM, Punjab CM and the National Assembly speaker.