Pervez Elahi says opposition has more votes, Imran in 100% trouble
ISLAMABAD: Pervez Elahi, a senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PMLQ), a key ally of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ruling party, said on Tuesday the federal government was “100% in trouble.”
This is the first time a member of the PMLQ has spoken out so openly against Khan’s government, raising widespread alarm that the PM could lose a no confident motion filed against him in parliament by opposition parties last week.
Following the submission of the no trust request, Khan has scrambled to meet senior leaders of his party as well as disgruntled figures within and reached out to leaders of allied parties to ensure they vote in his favour.
The opposition requires at least 172 votes in the 342-member National Assembly to topple Khan’s government. The current party position in the lower house of parliament shows the opposition collectively has 162 members while the government enjoys the support of 179 lawmakers, including its coalition partners.
Opposition parties, however, say they have the required numbers to win the no trust vote as they struggle to convince the government’s allied parties to leave the coalition. “This running around, going from room to room, this is proof that he [Khan] is in trouble,” Elahi said in an interview to local Hum News. “[He is] 100 percent in trouble.”
“This government has spoiled its contacts with everyone, even its own people,” the PMLQ leader said. “They are panicking because of their own people now, aren’t they? The tongue is something that can either mend ties or break them.”
Khan, who rose to power in a 2018 general election that critics say was rigged in his favour by the military, has always been known for his brash style of politics. The military denies it interferes in politics.
As pressure around the no confidence motion gathered in the last two months, with widespread accusations against the PTI of bad governance and mismanagement of the economy, Khan reportedly did not follow the advice of senior leaders to make amends with estranged figures like Jahangir Khan Tareen, once his closest ally, and give assurances to coalition partners like the PMLQ.
Imran Khan has also reportedly refused to remove Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, a longtime demand of both the opposition and allied parties.
Pervez Elahi on Tuesday said that the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has the support of “more than required” lawmakers to pass the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the National Assembly, warning that there are “plenty of surprises in store”.
The PML-Q, which is also an ally of the PTI government in Punjab, has assumed much more importance since opposition parties stepped up efforts to dislodge the government through a no-trust move. In order for such a move to succeed, the opposition would require PML-Q’s votes in the National Assembly. The party has five seats in the NA.
Elahi, in an interview with HUM News anchor Meher Bokhari, was asked to comment on PPP Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari’s claim that the opposition has more than 172 lawmakers’ support in the National Assembly. To this, Elahi concurred and said: “He (Zardari) is right. They have the required number … even have more than what one can imagine. This is what we have assessed and seen.”
The PML-Q leader said the government was itself to blame for the position it was in, saying that it never learned how to build relationships and instead “ruined things with everyone, including its own people”.
Elahi said that he has already been offered Punjab’s chief ministership as well as electoral alliance — including seat-to-seat adjustment — by the opposition alliance but the government has yet to make that offer.
When asked why he hasn’t accepted the offer yet, Elahi said: “The wait is that what would the government do. Maybe the government might do the same.”
Elahi said that the option of seat adjustment had been discussed with the PTI in the past but “then they should also stay true to their words.”
Without naming PM Imran, Elahi implied that the commitments made to his party had not been honoured. “They are old enough now … they are not children anymore. They should at least rectify their track record or people won’t have trust in you.”
He admitted that there was trust deficit with the PML-N as well, adding that Zardari intervened and gave the PML-Q his guarantee. “He (Zardari) clearly said that if you do not want to do it with them (PML-Q) then I also won’t be a part of this game. That’s when the PML-N got serious.”
He accused the government of forcing the National Accountability Bureau to target the PML-Q, including its leader Moonis Elahi, who is also a federal minister. “The NAB officials said that there are no cases to be made against them so then they ordered the NAB that ‘if you keep on looking you will find something.'”
Without naming any names, the PML-Q leader said that “the work carried out on the government’s behalf never allowed it to learn things for itself.” “The child will learn to walk only when you put him down,” he said metaphorically. “Would you keep on changing nappies all his life?”
Elahi ruled out the possibility of early elections, saying that PPP’s Zardari has told him that the five-year tenure of the lawmakers would be completed.
Earlier in the interview, the PML-Q leader urged both the government and the opposition to call off their planned power shows, saying that such confrontations would not be in the interest of the country and not benefit anyone.
He urged the government to move first and call off its planned political gathering for March 27, saying that would put pressure the opposition to do the same.
Choudhary Shujaat Hussain
Former prime minister and PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has appealed both the government and the Opposition to call of their public rallies they planned in Islamabad later this month.
In a statement, Shujaat Hussain appealed both the sides to immediately cancel their public gatherings in the best interest of the country. The PML-Q president argued that the prevailing political and economic situation in the country could not bear this dangerous confrontation.
The former prime minister opined that the inflation-stricken public were worried about the government and oppositions rallies, and the politics of numbers.
Shujaat maintained The Opposition does politics of public rallies but its surprising to see that the government is also resorting to match oppositions public gatherings which is not its cup of tea.
He said this political hostility could lead to such political chaos and crisis in Pakistan which would benefit its internal and external enemies.
Shujaat said both sides should not show their workers the path which leads to politics of provocation. Adopt democratic way to take part in the voting on no-trust motion and not make it an issue of their ego,he added.
He declared that PML-Q has always adopted politics of national interest. The people who have called us liars have forgotten the sacrifices which had made for the country,he said.