A seemingly upright prime minister is being ousted through a constitutional procedure: vote of no-confidence. Prime minister Imran Khan ought to have dissolved National Assembly soon after he came to power following the 2018 general elections and called for fresh polls.

In those days, in my view, he could have won more seats to form a government with or without the support of other parties. In other words, he might not have needed the support of allies to form his government. This razor-thin majority was the principal risk to his rule from the day one.

The conduct of PML-Q and BAP says it all. Be that as it may, embattled prime minister’s decision to deny PML-N, PTI’s main rival, the Punjab government by deciding to replace chief minister Usman Buzdar with an ally party PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has in fact checkmated the entire opposition. Losing federal government and protecting Punjab government is not a bad deal under the present circumstances. The prime minister rightly believes that he will ultimately succeed because history is on his side.

Syed Adeel Ahsan (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022