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Pakistan’s opposition parties have pledged to bring down Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, which is facing its most difficult political test since taking office in 2018.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), which includes the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-I), held a large rally on the Srinagar Highway in Islamabad on Monday night.
Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz and Punjab Assembly opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz, who began the rally in Lahore on March 26, arrived in Islamabad two days later to join supporters of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and other Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) parties who had already established a camp.
Maryam, the daughter and successor of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, chastised Khan for using religion to defend his shaky kingdom.
“I dare you to have 172 MNAs with you on the voting day on the no-trust resolution,” she said at the gathering, which came a day after Prime Minister Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party organised a big demonstration in his support here.
She accused Khan of throwing down his most trusted Punjab Chief Minister, Usman Buzdar, in order to save his seat when the cabinet opted to replace him with Chaudhry Pervez Elahi in order to gain the support of his Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid party.
“To safeguard your own rule, you shoved your most trusted man (Buzdar) into the river. We have never encountered such an ungrateful individual in our lives “she stated.
She further stated Khan alleged a foreign plan to destabilise him and blamed him for displaying a bogus letter at a rally the day before. She claimed Khan had lost people’s trust, as evidenced by the ruling party’s defeat in 15 of 16 by-elections in recent months.
Several more PDM officials addressed the crowd, and they stated that the demonstration would be transformed into a sit-in, with workers camping out until the vote of no-confidence was held.
Khan, 69, is the leader of a coalition government, and he can be dismissed if some of the coalition partners decide to change sides. The PTI has 155 members in the 342-member National Assembly and needs at least 172 parliamentarians to keep power.
On March 8, the country was thrown into disarray as the combined opposition presented the resolution to the National Assembly, along with a request to the speaker to convene the session within the required 14 days.
The event was organised in response to the opposition’s no-trust vote on March 8. The motion will be voted on between March 31 and April 3.
Khan came to office in 2018 with promises of establishing a ‘Naya Pakistan,’ but he failed miserably to handle the fundamental issue of keeping commodity prices under control, giving opposition ships wind in their sails to declare war on his government.
