PESHAWAR: Opposition parties on Sunday rejected the confidence vote cast in favour of Prime Minister Imran Khan during a National Assembly session and asked him to judge his party position by holding fresh general election.
“The premier has lost courage after defeat of PTI candidate Hafeez Sheikh by Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani, a joint candidate of Pakistan Democratic Movement-an alliance of opposition parties- and using very derogatory language against his rival politicians,” they said.
Qaumi Watan Party Chairman Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, Awami National Party’s former senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour, Pakistan Muslim League-N provincial secretary information Ikhtiar Wali Khan and Pakistan People’s Party provincial president Muhammad Humayun Khan in their separate statements
said that the loss of one senate seat in the senate election had baffled Imran Khan.
Sherpao condemned the manhandling of the senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz at the hands of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers outside the Parliament House in Islamabad and described it an indecent step on part of the ruling party. He accused PTI of introducing indecency in politics and said that such incidents would not bode well for democratic traditions in the country. “It seems as if Imran Khan is still standing on a container as his ministers were making provocative speeches against the members of the opposition,” Sherpao said.
The QWP chief said the PTI leaders were inciting the people to violence and it would foment anarchy and political discord in the country. “The country has never seen this kind of indecency. The PTI rulers don’t have the courage to tolerate political dissent,” he said, adding that the government was harassing its political adversaries through such tactics.
Commenting on the vote of confidence, Sherpao said the prime minister had lost the trust of the people, calling for a fresh election. He said that instead of accepting defeat, the prime minister was taking out his frustration on the Election Commission of Pakistan after losing the senate seat in Islamabad.
The ANP leader Bilour said that the PM had promised to step down in case of Hafeez Sheikh’s defeat but he did not fulfill his commitment rather staged a drama of vote of confidence which was not acceptable to the opposition parties. He said the no-confidence against the Prime Minister Imran Khan had come after the defeat of Hafeez Shaikh in Senate elections, so the vote of confidence from the lower house of the parliament was a useless exercise. He said the opposition’s popularity was increasing fast due to price hike, unemployment and weak economic policy.
Commenting on the PM’s address to the nation, Ilyas Bilour said that Imran Khan was having nothing to say, but he repeated his old narrative and shifted the entire responsibility on the previous government and Election Commission of Pakistan to hide his ‘incompetence’ and ‘failure’.
Terming the defeat of Hafeez Sheikh as mistrust on PTI government, the ANP leader said that the IMF agenda and anti-masses policies were rejected by the elected representatives. Besides, he said that holding the Election Commission of Pakistan and other relevant constitutional institutions responsible showed the PTI government failure and incompetence. He said government had failed to adopt an effective economic policy and totally surrendered the country to IMF which was dictating increase in prices of power, gas, petroleum products and other essential commodities.
Bilour said that the PM should show moral courage to seek a vote of confidence from the general masses to judge his popularity.
Similarly, PML-N provincial spokesman Ikhtiar Wali Khan, PPP Humayun Khan also condemned the manhandling of PML-N leaders during a press conference outside parliament and warned that such initiatives would lead to violence in politics. They said the PDM had already rejected the vote of confidence move and urged the premier to step down and announce fresh elections in the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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