Shehryar says if not haram, he would have launched ‘suicide attack on hypocrite’ MPs

While one expects heated reactions from the ruling party members over the no-trust move against Prime Minister Imran Khan, some still manage to baffle the nation with their outrageous statements. One such statement was made by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stalwart Sheharyar Afridi, who seems to have taken the tussle with the opposition to a whole new level.

While addressing a gathering of the party's members in Kohat the other day, he spoke about taking the lives of 'hypocrites', in a thinly veiled jibe at the government allies and party lawmakers jumping the ship ahead of the crucial session of the lower house of the parliament.

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In a violent outburst circulated widely online, he said that if suicide was not forbidden [in Islam] he would have tied explosives to his body and killed all hypocrites in parliament so that they would be eliminated forever.

Afridi, who heads the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, was seen speaking in an aggressive tone and turning away a party worker who approached him with a glass of water to cool him down.

The remarks drew condemnation from social media users, with many urging calm amidst an increasingly tense political situation.

A day earlier, it was reported that at least 50 ministers belonging to the ruling party had gone ‘missing’ from the political front. These federal and provincial ministers have not been seen in public since the opposition began stacking up perils against Prime Minister Imran.

On March 8, the united opposition front had filed a requisition for a no-confidence motion against PM, pinning its hopes for its success on the estranged members of the ruling party and its allies.

For making the no-trust motion successful, the opposition needs to have the support of at least 172 of the total 342 members in the lower house of parliament to show a simple majority – leading to the choosing of a new prime minister.

Political analysts conjectured that the opposition could bag the support of 10 lawmakers or more from the ruling party or any of the allies as they had been in touch with it for quite some time now.