Allies more inclined towards opposition, PM told

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan was told on Wednesday that the allied parties were now more inclined to side with the opposition and the estranged party MNAs also appeared uninterested in returning to the party's fold.

To this effect, the prime minister presided over a meeting of PTI’s political committee here and the government committee, which included federal ministers Pervaiz Khattak and Asad Umar, briefed the forum about the latest position with regard to the government’s allies, it was learnt.

Others present in the meeting were Federal Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain and Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad and others. The government committee informed the meeting that their interaction with the MQM-Pakistan and PML-Q and others, was not very encouraging, as they were no more interested in going along with the government in the given situation, and instead were more interested in joining the opposition camp.

The political committee reviewed the latest political situation with special reference to the opposition's no-trust motion and the upcoming session of the National Assembly and the government’s options.

Likewise, the meeting was also informed that the 'angry party members', who were issued notices and asked to explain their position to Prime Minister Imran Khan before or on March 26, also apparently were not ready to review their position. In this connection, they cited video clips of some of them while others were not interested in going public before the voting on the no-trust motion but their chances of returning to the PTI's fold were quite slim.

To this, the prime minister reportedly asked his team to continue efforts and explain to them (the allies and PTI members) the past of the opposition leaders and their alleged looting of the national wealth and that they had joined hands only to revive their era of corruption again by removing the popular PTI government. The meeting, however, agreed to also focus on mobilizing masses for the March 27 public meeting and the reference filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan to put an end to sale and purchase of members, seeking life-time ban on those who sell their conscience for money.