Imran govt wins confidence vote
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan survived a vote of confidence in parliament on Saturday, days after his party lost a key Senate seat to an opposition candidate. Ruling party and opposition activists clashed briefly outside parliament ahead of the vote. Khan secured 178 votes in the 340-seat National Assembly through an open ballot.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday won a trust vote in the National Assembly, ending the political uncertainty in the country and strengthening his government’s legitimacy after an embarrassing defeat of the finance minister in the hotly-contested Senate elections.
Prime Minister Khan secured 178 votes in the 342-member lower house of parliament during a special session convened on the directives of President Arif Alvi. He required 172 votes for a simple majority.
The floor test took place without the Opposition as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — an alliance of 11 parties — boycotted the voting, making it easier for Khan to secure the required numbers.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tabled a single-point resolution in the House.
Speaker Asad Qaiser announced the result, saying Prime Minister Khan had been elected to the post with 176 votes more than two years back. “Today, he has secured 178 votes,” he said.
“A total of 178 members recorded their vote in favour of resolution and the resolution has been passed. Consequently, Imran Khan has obtained the vote of confidence and commands the majority of the members of the assembly as the Prime minister,” the Speaker said.
Speaking in the National Assembly after winning the vote of confidence Prime Minister Khan said that corruption was the biggest problem facing the country and his government would support the judiciary and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to convict the corrupt politicians.
The prime minister sought the support of society in the fight against corruption to protect future generations from corrupt politicians who had been plundering the country for the last 30 years.
He said Pakistan was not made for billionaires like Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari. The latter was known as a corrupt person and the former was declared a proclaimed offender after he left the country after looting the public wealth.
Khan said both Sharif and Zardari plundered the public money and were responsible for raising country’s debt from Rs6,000 billion to Rs30,000 billion.
The prime minister thanked his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and allies for their support. The PTI would emerge more strong after the present difficult time, he added.
Continuing his criticism of the recently held Senate elections, the prime minister said the government knew for a month that “money was being collected for buying and selling” of lawmakers.
He added that he was ashamed that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is of the opinion that the elections conducted were satisfactory. “If this was a good election, what will a bad election look like?”
The prime minister asked the Election Commission to get a briefing from intelligence agencies as to how much money was used to purchase votes.
Khan said the government has decided to bring electoral reforms to ensure complete transparency in elections.
He said electronic voting machines will be introduced so that nobody questions the credibility of the elections and the results are acceptable to all.
Unsavory scenes were witnessed outside Parliament building due to rowdy behaviour of the ruling party activists who tried to disrupt a Press conference of opposition leaders belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Opposition PML-N leaders alleged that they had been manhandled by the ruling party members who were holding up banners and chanting slogans in favour of Khan. Security forces managed to separate the political workers of the two sides.
Rowdy scenes were witnessed outside Parliament House on Saturday as supporters of both the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and opposition parties came to blows ahead of vote of confidence.
PML-N leaders alleged they had been manhandled by PTI supporters outside the Parliament House.
PML-N leaders — including Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Khurram Dastagir and Musadiq Malik — were speaking to the media ahead of a special session of the National Assembly when they alleged were harassed and manhandled by PTI workers.
During the brawl, shoes were hurled at PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal, while Dr Musadiq Malik and Marriyum Aurangzeb were attacked and manhandled.
PML-N leaders alleged they were harassed and manhandled by PTI supporters, adding that there was no police or security for their protection. —