PTI minister invites PML-N to move no-trust move against PM Imran

ISLAMABAD: A federal minister, belonging to the PTI, has allegedly invited the top PML-N leadership to bring a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the National Assembly, it is learnt.

An informed source told The News that the federal minister recently approached a family member of a top PML-N leader to convey that in case of a no-confidence motion, the opposition could even get the support of several PTI MNAs at a time when the PTI's relationship with its coalition partners is already facing difficulties.

The minister's message was conveyed to Mian Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and Khawaja Asif. The PML-N has not yet responded to this "idea" of the minister and prefers the wait and see policy at least for the time being.

This correspondent contacted the minister, who categorically denied that he had conveyed any such message to Sharifs. It is said that the federal minister used his personal mobile number to contact the family member of the top PML-N leader. He is said to have an old association with his PML-N associated contact. This relationship apparently prompted the minister to convey his idea to the PML-N.

The minister also conveyed that over a dozen PTI MNAs were ready for an in-house change. Interestingly, this background contact of the federal minister with the PML-N on the issue of no-confidence motion against the prime minister coincides with certain political controversies haunting the ruling PTI.

While one of the coalition partners - BNP Mengal - has already announced to leave the government, the PML-Q political posturing is also disturbing for the PTI government. There are also talks of "minus one" formula and no one else but the Prime Minister Imran Khan himself in his recent appearance in the National Assembly talked about it. Dismissing the "minus one" formula, Imran Khan vowed to go after the "mafias" and "cartels".

A recent interview of Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry also showed that things were not well even within the ruling PTI. Chaudhry had said Jahangir Tareen had Asad Umar removed from the finance ministry and that the infighting among Umar, Tareen and Shah Mehmood Qureshi affected the party a lot.

Chaudhry even expressed his dissatisfaction with the performance of Imran Khan government. “There was a lot of expectation from the PTI and Imran Khan. The public had not elected us or the prime minister to fix nuts and bolts but to reform the system,” Chaudhry said in an interview with the Voice of America. He said one of the main problems was infighting between the PTI senior leadership that included Umar, Tareen and Qureshi. Hence, this leads to a political vacuum.

“When the political vacuum was created, it was filled up with new people who were not from politics,” he said. “When your core team was disturbed, it was filled with new people who were frankly not aligned with ideas and won’t be and don’t have the capacity to either," he added.

This infighting affected the party a lot, especially the political class, he stated. On Saturday, Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed issued a statement which furthers the perception that things are not really well in the ruling coalition.

Warning of a possible 'minus three in case of any minus one', Rashid advised the PTI ministers not to wash their dirty linen in the public. Rashid said "we" are not the last choice. He said some of the ministers were doing what even the opposition could not do.