ISLAMABAD: After successfully managing a vote of confidence in the Punjab provincial assembly against its chief minister, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is contemplating asking Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take a vote of confidence from parliament if Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) decides to part ways with the ruling coalition in the centre.

The sources within PTI told Business Recorder that PTI chief Imran Khan is waiting for MQM-P’s decision over their reservations regarding the local government polls in Karachi and Hyderabad, before asking President Dr Arif Alvi to ask the prime minister to get a vote of confidence from the house.

MQM-P had threatened to quit the federal government if their reservations regarding delimitations in Karachi and Hyderabad were not addressed ahead of the LG polls scheduled for today (Sunday).

A senior PTI leader who declined not to be named said that if the governor can ask the chief minister to get the vote of confidence from the provincial assembly, why we can’t ask the president to ask the prime minister to get the vote of confidence.

Imran says PM Shehbaz to be ‘tested with vote of confidence'

“We did discuss the vote of confidence issue for the prime minister in today’s (Saturday) meeting, and hopefully after some days things will be cleared as what we should do about the vote of confidence for the prime minister,” he added.

He acknowledged that the party is waiting for MQM-P as what would be its next line of action as Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said the local government elections would take place as per schedule today (Sunday) despite MQM-P’s reservations.

He said that with the departure of MQM-P, the 13-party alliance of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would be ended within no time, as smaller parties from Balochistan have already expressed their reservations about Sharif administration.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023