Vote of confidence: PDM to boycott tomorrow's NA session

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will boycott tomorrow's (Saturday) session of the National Assembly where the prime minister will seek a vote of confidence from parliamentarians.

The move from the prime minister came after PPP's Yousaf Raza Gilani pulled a shock victory over Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, the PTI's representative, in the Senate polls.

Gilani secured 169 votes while Shaikh pulled in 164 votes.

Speaking to media, Fazl said PDM lawmakers will boycott the National Assembly session.

"No member of the PDM will participate in tomorrow's National Assembly session," said JUI-F and PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, speaking to media.

Referring to Senate Chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani's survival of the vote of no-confidence in 2019, the JUI-F chief said PM Imran Khan had said, at the time, that Opposition senators who voted in Sanjrani's favour had voted according to their conscience.

The JUI-F chief blamed PM Imran Khan and his government for hiking prices of petrol and food items such as wheat and sugar. He said that instead of giving people 10 million jobs, the government's measures had resulted in over 3 million people being unemployed.

The JUI-F chief spoke about the ECP as well.

"We believe blaming the ECP [for their loss] in Senate election is not the matter," he said. "We believe he [PM Imran Khan] blamed the ECP to put pressure on them [to not pursue] the foreign funding case."

The JUI-F chief wondered how the prime minister could seek a vote of confidence from the same lawmakers he was accusing of receiving bribe to vote against the party line in the Senate elections.

When asked whether he considered the "the direction of winds had changed", the PDM chief said they had changed a long while ago. "The winds had changed when we first held the Azadi March," he said.

'Everything is out of his hands'

When asked how he read the prime minister's actions of meeting lawmakers and holding party meetings immediately after the Senate elections, Fazl said that it was a reflection that the prime minister was shaken by the defeat.

"There is no executive at the moment. There is no government," he said, adding that "everything is out of his [PM Imran Khan's] hands".

"He should announce new elections immediately and let a new government get elected."

When asked to comment on whether the PDM's absence from the National Assembly's session tomorrow will strengthen the government's move, Fazl said it would not.

"The importance of his whole narrative will be eliminated," he said. "They formed a fake government and have been involved in one-sided procedures from day one," the JUI-F chief added.

When asked whether the PDM intended to begin the long march from Karachi, he said a strategy would be developed. "Caravans will travel from everywhere," he said.