ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior vice president and former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi challenged the government on Tuesday to stop the lawmakers from entering the National Assembly, if it can on the day of voting on no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Talking to journalists after appearing before the Accountability Court, he said “this is my challenge to the prime minister and his ministers to stop the members [from going to the parliament] if they can”. “The vote of no confidence against the prime minister is our constitutional and democratic right. It [the no-confidence motion] is the voice of [the] people, and if anyone dares suppress that voice, will learn a lesson,” he claimed.
To a question, he said that the last nail in the coffin of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government will be fixed in the parliament. Now the government has realized that their days were numbered and they have taken to the streets instead of going to the parliament, he said, adding that the government which started street agitations against the opposition had in fact failed to deliver to the masses.
Responding to a question about the ruling party’s decision to stage a mammoth public meeting at D-Chowk on March 27, he asked the government in clear and categorical terms that even if it gathered one million people at D-Chowk, it could not prevent the no-trust motion tabled by the opposition in the National Assembly. “You will have to pay for the threats you are hurling these days,” he warned.
When he was asked that did he stick to his stance that the Punjab chief minister seat could not be handed over to the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) just based on seven members of the provincial assembly, he sarcastically said that Usman Buzdar is the chief minister of Punjab. He said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has issued notice to some of our members during the last few days but I want to make it clear to the bureau that they will face the consequences of issuing these notices to the lawmakers. You have no right to interfere in the no-confidence motion moved against the PTI government, he said, adding that not only the NAB but the anti-corruption department, Punjab have also issued notices to his party members. He asked the Director General (DG) anti-corruption not to interfere in the constitutional maters.
Earlier, he and other accused appeared before the Accountability Court-II judge, Muhammad Azam Khan, in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) case.
At the start of hearing, Abbasi came to the rostrum and requested the court not to proceed with the trial till the arrival of his counsel Barrister Zafarullah Khan.
The court approved his request and took an interval.
After the arrival of Abbasi’s counsel, the court recorded partial statement of the prosecution witness, Muhammad Ali, procurement manager Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL), and adjourned the case till March 22.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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