Shahid Khaqan opposes proposal of in-house change

Islamabad: Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has categorically opposed the proposal of no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan stating, “The premier would brutally use state machinery to counter this act.”

Talking to The News he said, “The democracy is not so strong in Pakistan and so are the democratic values. How can the opposition parties would protect their members when the prime minister would order government departments to threat, detain and arrest them in frivolous cases.”

He said: “We have seen the role of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that acts on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan to register cases against opposition members and arrest them on baseless allegations.” There are so many government departments like NAB, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the police that would immediately start arresting opposition members when they would move no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said.

He said if opposition parties muster support of even 282 members then still no-confidence motion would be defeated by the incumbent government because it would use all illegal and undemocratic means with full impunity.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the PML-N is quite clear in its political stance that long march and resignations from the assemblies are the best way to get rid of this incompetent government.

To a question, he said “It is entirely my personal opinion and whenever our party seeks my advice I oppose the proposal of no-confidence motion.”

Replying to another question, he said, “I have no details about telephonic contacts between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. But political leaders interact with one another and it is a routine political matter.”

He said, “The component parties of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) have their different viewpoints but when we meet together in next PDM meeting we will come up with joint strategy against the incumbent government.”