Asad Umar says PTI has required numbers for CM Elahi's vote of confidence

Former finance minister and senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Asad Umar said on Monday that the party has the required numbers for Chief Minister Parvez Elahi's vote of confidence, Aaj News reported.

"You all witnessed that the government proved its strength in today's session of the Punjab Assembly. We will not require the opposition's votes to prove our majority in the house," Asad Umar said while speaking to media outside the provincial assembly.

His comments come amid reports that the PTI and the PML-Q had decided against holding the vote of confidence in Monday's session, backtracking their earlier claims.

Earlier, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that Elahi will take the vote of confidence before January 11, the date when the Lahore High Court is set to resume a hearing on the CM’s petition against the governor’s notification to de-notify him.

When asked why the vote of confidence was not on the agenda for today's session, Asad Umar said it was the government's strategy, adding that CM Parvez Elahi will obtain the house's confidence whenever deemed appropriate.

Slamming the federal government for spiraling inflation, Asad said the government was creating an artificial crisis of the essential items to worsen an already critical situation of inflation.

"The government first allowed the wheat to be smuggled to Afghanistan, and now they are importing wheat from Russia. Similarly, soybean consignments were not cleared due to which the prices of chicken are skyrocketing in the country," he said.

Asad said the prices of palm oil have dropped significantly in the international market, but the price of edible oil hasn't been reduced in Pakistan.

He said that parties in the federal government were focused on getting their corruption cases settled, adding that the "looters" had no compassion for the poor segment of society.