Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar takes a jibe at PDM coalition

ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar on Friday said that the events that took place in the Punjab last week held an important “lesson for those parties which change their narratives in their greed for power.”

Khokhar wrote in a tweet, “There was a time that only on the promise of a PML-N ticket, we won the Senate election between Yusuf Raza Gilani and Hafeez Sheikh. But today even with the combined strength of powerful constituencies, [they] lost Punjab. There is a lesson in this for those parties which change their narrative in their greed for power.” 

Khokhar was referring to the protracted crisis in the Punjab, where a long-drawn out struggle for control was eventually won by the PTI-PML-Q coalition government.

Earlier in December, PTI Chairman Imran Khan had announced the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies. In a counter move by PDM coalition partners, on December 20, the Punjab governor had asked the chief minister to obtain a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly. At the same time, the PML-N and PPP lawmakers had submitted a no-trust resolution against him.

However, PA Speaker Sibtain Khan termed the governor’s orders as “illegal, against the provisions of the Constitution and thus stand disposed of.”

Then, on December 21, the Punjab governor termed the speaker’s ruling “unconstitutional” and de-notified Elahi and dissolved the provincial cabinet.

CM Elahi then approached the Lahore High Court which reinstated the PML-Q leader as the chief minister and restored the provincial cabinet as an “interim relief.”

Finally, on January 10, CM Elahi managed to obtain a vote of confidence in the Punjab Assembly with 186 votes. Later the same day after the vote, CM Elahi sent a letter to the governor, seeking the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly as announced by the PTI chairman.

The events that transpired in the Punjab Assembly have solidified the public perception that the PML-N, one of the biggest parties in the province, is unable to secure stability as a result of multiple strategic miscalculations. A governance crisis continues to persist in the country’s largest province as a result.

Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar had resigned early November last year from his senate role after he was told by some senior PPP officials that the party leadership was displeased with some of his public positions. Khokhar has remained a vocal critic of last year’s vote of no confidence in the National Assembly against Imran Khan’s government and has publicly spoken out multiple times against the policies being pursued by the government in the Centre.