LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The opposition leaders and ministers on Sunday continued trading barbs and allegations against each other on the issues of prime minister’s vote of confidence and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) activists’ alleged attack on the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leaders in the capital on Saturday.
Opposition leaders challenged the number of votes cast in favour of the prime minister, saying agencies’ help was sought to ‘rope in’ the ruling alliance’s parliamentarians for getting their votes.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders alleged coercion in the NA voting process, while the PML-N leaders warned of tit-for-tat response in case of any physical attack on the party activists in future.
In response, the government ministers vowed inflicting defeat on the opposition parties in future as well, saying the position of the PPP and PML-N was that of losers, who would get nothing from their propaganda.
Speaking to the media along with PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz in Lahore, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari demanded a probe into the controversy surrounding the vote of confidence held in the National Assembly.
He claimed that there were not enough people present in the house, then how come Imran Khan secured 178 votes.
“Imran Khan was neither voluntarily voted as the prime minister in 2018 by the National Assembly Members nor he was voluntarily voted during the vote of confidence,” Bilawal claimed and termed the recent move of taking vote of confidence a joke.
“Imran Khan ran alone in the race and declared himself the winner,” the PPP leader said and sarcastically added that this one-man race was also rigged. The allegation raised by a member of the opposition present in the assembly at that time that the number of votes announced did not match the number of people in attendance must be investigated, demanded Bilawal.
In Islamabad, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz said the government would have to pay a heavy price for the attack on the PML-N leaders outside the Parliament House.
Addressing a press conference after a meeting of party’s senior leaders, she strongly condemned the assault on former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Miftah Ismail, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Musadik Malik.
She said there was strong anger within the party over the incident, saying that revenge of the attack was due and every party worker would take that revenge. “If you slap us twice, we will respond with ten slaps,” she warned.
Maryam also asked the PTI leaders to keep lecture of ethics to themselves. She said that the PML-N meeting discussed issues like Senate elections, legal and constitutional status of confidence vote taken by PM Imran Khan.
The meeting decided to award ticket for NA-249 Karachi bye-elections to Miftah Ismail. The seat fell vacant following Faisal Vawda’s resignation. Maryam Nawaz said there was consensus in the meeting that the confidence vote had no constitutional, legal or moral standing as it was taken under coercion.
She cast aspersions on the PTI lawmakers having voted against party lines and in favour of opposition-backed candidate Yusuf Raza Gilani in the race for the Islamabad general Senate seat and then "all of a sudden" voting for the prime minister two days later.
"What prompted such a thing, that they changed their decision?" she questioned. Maryam said that the night before the trust vote, the "entire Parliament Lodges had been turned into a bunker", "as if it is North Waziristan".
"The entire night you kept a watch on your MNAs with drone cameras," she claimed. The PML-N vice president said it was "unprecedented" that a leader, despite being in power, had been voted against by his own party members.
She said this is besides the "lack of trust being expressed from the people of all four provinces". Maryam also claimed that two MNAs who did not want to cast the vote of confidence were kept in illegal detention in a container for four hours in Golra area.
She also alleged that the government agencies were also used to force the MNAs to vote for Imran Khan. “I want to ask whether the agencies are for this purpose,” she said adding that Imran Khan also feels that time was over for him.
She told the media that the matters relating to the Senate chairman would be taken at a PDM meeting in Islamabad on Monday (today). In response to Bilawal and Maryam Nawaz press conferences, Information Minister Shibli Faraz said that the winning of vote of confidence by PM Imran Khan had sent a wave of happiness across Pakistan and thousands of felicitation messages poured in from the overseas Pakistanis also.
About PDM, the minister claimed that it had very weak moral standing, as its politics was based on lust for money and destroying merit and the state institutions. He said that people had rejected them in 2018 and now they had been rejected again on the day of vote of confidence. “This shows that the country and politics have undergone change and during the last 5-6 months, the PDM has faced defeat on every front. The reason is that people do not support them.
“The seat they won in Islamabad is no victory, as money was used for the purpose and the proofs are there, including a video, wherein rigging has been admitted,” he added.
About news conferences by Bilawal and Maryam, Shibli said their body language showed how demoralised they were after the vote of confidence. And the type of language used by Bilawal hardly suggested that he had studied at Oxford University, while one could expect anything from Maryam. He saw no difference between the language used by Bilawal and Rana Sanaullah of the PML-N.
The minister noted that the PTI had emerged as the biggest party after 2018 general election, and now it again emerged the biggest single party in the Senate. The reason was that the party increased its popularity and basic factor was of morality and the struggle to bring about the rule of law and make projects of the public welfare.
He said the reason that two established parties i.e. PPP and PML-N had been confined to Sindh and Punjab, respectively was that their politics revolved around their vested interests. They would come to power to make more money and build assets in Europe and other countries, and paralyse the state institutions and render the economy bankrupt.
On the other hand, he claimed, the PTI strengthened its position with each passing year. In 2002, Imran Khan got elected as an MNA, and in 2013 elections, his party formed government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In 2018 polls, it again formed government there on the basis of its performance as well as in Centre and Punjab.
He said the PDM parties agitated before the Election Commission on Feb 17. It is strange that if they win, they say the results were genuine, and if they lose elections, they chant slogans of rigging, the minister added. “There is hardly mention of video of Yusuf Raza Gilani’s son, telling how to waste votes, in newspapers and on TV channels. However, everyone s found saying ‘Ik Zardari sab pay bhaari’ [One Zardari is heavier than all politicians]. This shows how strong we are in terms of morality,” added the minister.
The minister said that the PDM parties wanted to come to power again, not to serve people but to make more wealth and get relief from the corruption cases. To achieve that goal, they were using every method to exert pressure on the government. But, added Shibli, they had been confronted by a different man this time in the shape of Imran Khan, who neither would come under any pressure nor be influenced.
“We will chase the corrupt opposition and not spare them. We want such an election process, which is transparent and open, wherein there is no use of money. And, for it we have taken practical steps and will take more. Our economy is moving again and it is stable now,” claimed the minister.
Separately, Special Assistant to Chief Minister Punjab on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said the disinformation cell of the immature opposition was spreading chaos through the social media.
"Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf members expressed their confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan in the parliament and the opposition is upset and worried by his success," she said.
The SACM said the political orphans were making hue and cry and challenging the government on the media screens and were not ready to come to parliament whereas the government was ready to face the opposition in the assembly.
Dr Firdous said, "The opposition who won the toss in the Senate seat ran away on the captain's batting." Prime Minister Imran Khan won the vote of confidence by securing 178 votes, she added.
