Fawad wants NA session convened soon

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday urged National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to convene the no-confidence motion session of the lower house of parliament at the earliest as the country could not afford political instability amid the global recession for long.

A day earlier, the united opposition front had submitted a no-confidence motion against the chief executive of the country – Prime Minister Imran Khan – while pinning its hopes for its success on the estranged members of the ruling party and its allies.

“The prime minister has the support of more than 179 MNAs and the number might touch 184 with the inclusion of five more legislators of other political parties in the PTI’s ranks,” the minister claimed while addressing a news conference in Islamabad accompanied by Energy Minister Hammad Azhar.

Fawad rejected the opposition’s claim of having the support of 185 MNAs.

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

The minister also ruled out engaging in talks with the opposition. “We tried to talk to them on electoral reforms and other matters of public interest but they did not respond to us."

At the outset of the news conference, 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 [former premier] Nawaz Sharif, IJI [Islami Jamhoori Ittehad] and even [JUI-F chief] Fazlur Rehman introducing the horse-trading culture in the politics.”

The minister further claimed that it was the time when the politics of “Changa Manga” was introduced with the then rivals, former president Asif Ali Zardari and ex-premier Nawaz buying the loyalties of parliamentarians through large sums of money.

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“The two adversaries have now joined hands and again brought the culture of horse-trading back to oust a democratically-elected prime minister to save themselves from corruption cases.”

Fawad further said no Pakistani leader since PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had pursued an independent foreign policy with the exception of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The minister said the PTI had already proved its majority in the Senate and defeated the joint opposition in parliament multiple times by having bills of national importance passed.

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

Speaking on the occasion, Hammad described the opposition’s no-confidence motion against PM Imran 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% annually.

“Pakistan’s economy is on the consistent growth trajectory despite the world economic recession mainly caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he added.

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The energy minister maintained that 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.

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

“We will give the opposition a surprise [in the no-confidence motion], following which we will emerge as a stronger government for the remaining term.”

(With input from APP)