Preemptive move: Ruling coalition mulls taking trust vote

Bedevilled and anxious, the ruling coalition on Saturday contemplated launching its preemptive strike to neutralise the PTI’s threat of using the president’s office to ask the premier to take a trust vote from the lower house of parliament.

Shortly after PTI Chairman Imran Khan gave formal approval that President Arif Alvi – who belongs to the PTI – should ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to obtain a vote of confidence, the PML-N-led coalition government came up with its own counterpunch as it mulled pulling off a trust victory in the National Assembly – an act reminiscent of PM Shehbaz’ predecessor – Imran Khan – who decided to take a vote of confidence back in March 2021.

Aiming to sail through the vote of confidence before it’s lobbed at him by his archenemy, PM Shehbaz seeks a show of strength intended to remove doubts over imperilled prime minister’s authority to govern and steady his ship in unchartered waters.

Read more: PM Shehbaz will be ‘put to test’ through confidence vote: Imran

In 2021, Imran had cruised through a vote of confidence, cementing his leadership amid strong headwinds and challenges to his office. Interestingly, the PTI chief was not the only prime minister of the country compelled to seek a vote of confidence from NA as former PM Nawaz Sharif had also taken a confidence vote when he faced defections during his first tenure in 1993.

Imran needed to take a vote from NA legislators as the then-opposition alliance had stunned the PTI government on March 3, 2021, when Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate Yousuf Raza Gillani pulled off an unexpected victory against the then-ruling party’s financial czar Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the Senate elections on the general seat from Islamabad.

Amid speculations that the president can formally ask PM Shehbaz to take a confidence vote from the assembly, the PTI chief confirmed on Saturday that his party has decided to put PM Shehbaz to the test through “different plans” that include a vote of confidence from NA.

“Certainly, we will fully test him [Shehbaz Sharif]. He tested us here [in Punjab]. Now it’s his turn to face the music,” Imran said when asked in a talk show if his party through the President can ask the premier to show a majority in the House.

In order to defuse PTI’s move, sources in the government revealed, the ruling alliance also swung in action and considered the option of taking a trust vote even before the President asks the PM to prove a simple majority – 172 out of 342 House.

A senior leader of the ruling coalition revealed that the government can stay in power if it can show a majority in the house, saying it can “preempt other moves”. While ruling out snap polls in the country, he said that elections can be held in provinces where assemblies are dissolved.

Similarly, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also asserted that the coalition government will complete its numbers and show them if the prime minister was asked for a vote of confidence. There is no danger to the federal government in this regard, the Bhutto scion claimed.

Also read: Punjab Assembly stands dissolved without governor’s approval

Back in March 2012, before the then-opposition could move a vote of the no-confidence resolution, ex-PM Imran had announced that he would take a vote of confidence from the house. He had successfully won a confidence vote to counter the opposition’s ability to challenge the legitimacy of his government.

However, it didn’t last long as PDM had successfully executed a no-confidence motion against Imran in April 2022. The PML-N-led government had come into power amid the declining popularity of PTI and it was widely envisaged that there was no chance of PTI coming back into power any time soon.

However, this notion also turned out to be incorrect as PTI regained its lost popularity when the ruling alliance was busy taking “tough decisions” to bring economic stability while simultaneously burning its political capital.

The subsequent events, especially PTI’s winning streak in by-elections, depicted that it was once again not only in the race but a hot favourite to win. Sensing the situation, the PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has finally decided to contest elections in Punjab after the PTI-PML-Q alliance dissolved the provincial assembly.

Similarly, the rulers at the Centre have decided not to abandon the federal government. Instead, they have been busy preempting PTI moves so that it can’t force elections in the country just like it did in Punjab.

The majority of PTI legislators had resigned en masse from the National Assembly in April 2022. However, NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf had accepted the resignations of only a handful of the lawmakers. The results of the by-polls on the seats falling vacant had stunned the ruling alliance and since then it has kept the matter of accepting the resignations of over 100 PTI MNAs pending.

On the one hand, PTI leadership has been trying to get the resignations of all its lawmakers accepted at once while, on the other hand, it has decided to give a tough time to PM Shehbaz by asking him to show his numbers on the floor of the house.

In response, the PML-N-led government has geared up to defend itself at the Centre and even asked the lawmakers to ensure their availability in the capital in the coming days so that it doesn’t fall short of taking a confidence vote, if needed.

Amid all of this political wrangling, the country has been facing the toughest economic challenges in the wake of climate-induced rains and floods that have affected over 33 million people across the country.