Islamabad: Pakistan PM Imran Khan last week comfortably won a trust vote in the National Assembly by securing 178 votes, six more than the required number, to ensure his tenure in the office following a big setback in the recent Senate polls. His victory was a foregone conclusion after the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an anti-government alliance of opposition parties, decided to boycott the session and the government warned its party members of disqualification if they voted against Khan.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government had no option other than seeking a trust vote after its candidate for the senate seat from Islamabad, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, lost to former PM and opposition’s candidate Yousaf Raza Gilani.
The total strength of the National Assembly is 342. The opposition enjoys the support of 160 members, while the government and its allies have 180 lawmakers. Two seats are currently vacant. Khan needed 172 votes to win the confidence vote. Announcing the result, speaker Asad Qaiser said: “Today, PM Imran Khan has secured178 votes.”
Addressing the House after securing the trust vote, Imran thanked the lawmakers, including his allies, for staying by his side. He said the way senate elections were conducted in Pakistan was embarrassing. He also lashed out at his political opponents and called Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief and former president Asif Ali Zardari and former PM Nawaz Sharif “thieves”. “These thieves were blackmailing my government for an NRO,” he said. The NRO refers to the National Reconciliation Order under which Benazir Bhutto and many others were able to return to Pakistan from exile as cases against them were dropped. The term is now used to describe an attempt to use an ordinance to allow someone to escape the legal process.
The PM further said that Sharif had faked sickness to go abroad so that he could avoid the legal consequences of his corruption and theft. He criticised Yusuf Raza Gilani, who had defeated PTI’s Hafeez Shaikhin the recent Senate polls, as one of the most corrupt politicians in the country. “Just look at his (Gilani’s) wealth and assets before he became the PM and do a comparison with his assets after he became the PM. The picture will be clear,” he said.
Top opposition leaders, meanwhile, demanded Khan’s resignation and holding of fresh elections. PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the vote of confidence has no meaning. “This was not a confidence vote. We know which agencies watched the members of the assembly the entire night. (We know) who knocked on the doors of each member to ensure they were present,” he said. His reference was towards reports that the government kept its members in lodges in Islamabad under strict watch so that all of them are present in parliament during the floor test. He challenged Khan to “be courageous and ask the public to cast a vote of confidence (by) conducting a new election”. PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz said Khan’s days as PM were numbered and PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Khan had been exposed after the defeat in the Senate seat.
