PTI’s NRO to party ‘cheaters’?

ISLAMABAD: The success of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vote of confidence in the National Assembly on Saturday will only be possible with the support of the 15-16 PTI MNAs who in the recent Senate elections had voted for the PDM candidate Yusuf Raza Gillani.

In the PTI parliamentary party meeting held on Friday, according to sources, the prime minister as well as Defence Minister Pervez Khattak told the party MNAs that it has been decided to adopt the policy of “forget and forgive” vis-a-vis those who had betrayed the party in the Senate election. They were, however, asked that all members must participate in the vote of confidence otherwise they would face disqualification.

Given this fact, the premier’s vote of confidence will serve as an NRO for those PTI members who only a few days ago had allegedly sold their votes, resulting in the defeat of the government candidate Dr Hafeez Shaikh.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan has been extremely upset with these members of his party and had urged the ECP to unmask them. But now the votes of the very same legislators who had been accused of selling their conscience have become critically important to save his government. If these 15-16 PTI members are not present in the National Assembly and do not vote in the confidence motion on Saturday, it could lead to the collapse of the Imran Khan government.

It is expected, however, that most if not all these PTI MNAs will give their vote of confidence to the prime minister on Saturday because the polling will be by a show of hands and not a secret ballot.

Federal Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid on Thursday said that the government could have information about those PTI members who had voted for Yousaf Raza Gillani. However, neither the PTI nor the prime minister can now afford to unmask those MNAs because it would lead to the failure of the vote of confidence-- which would mean the end of the Imran Khan government.

In his televised speech on Thursday, the prime minister had unleashed scathing criticism of the Election Commission of Pakistan for holding the Senate elections through a secret ballot. He said if the voting had not been secret, he would have known those PTI members who had sold their conscience.

“When the Supreme Court gave you (the ECP) a chance and asked you to keep the election secret but ensure identification of the ballot…for example today if we want to know who are those 15, 16 people who traded their conscience… but you saved them by allowing secret ballots. You have damaged our democracy and morality. What kind of democracy is this where a senator wins by paying money” the prime minister said.

But now that he seeks a vote of confidence from the National Assembly, he cannot afford to lose even a few members from the treasury benches because of the razor thin majority his government enjoys in the lower house. This situation has left no option for the prime minister but to give an NRO to the tainted MPs of his party.

It is believed that the government will neither expose these MNAs now nor make any effort in the future to identify them (if it still has no clue about their identity). The simple reason is the numbers game in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Imran Khan requires at least 172 votes from MNAs on Saturday to save his government. The total number of MNAs belonging to PTI and all its allies combined is said to be 181. With this slender a majority, 15-16 MNAs will be critically important to save Khan’s government.