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President Dr. Arif Alvi will ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for a vote of confidence, according to Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Imran Khan.
During a media conference in Lahore and in an interview that aired on Hum News TV on Saturday night, Mr. Khan stated, “Shehbaz Sharif tested us in Punjab; now it’s his turn to demonstrate whether he has a majority in the National Assembly or not.
The chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf stated, “In the first, Shehbaz will be tested for a trust vote… and later, we have other plans for him,” citing disagreements within the federal coalition as the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) threatened to resign over the issue of local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad.
It is important to note that the federal coalition only has a very slim majority and that Dr. Alvi is a member of Amir Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. MQM-P has seven representatives in the National Assembly; if it decides to resign, the Shehbaz administration will collapse.
In order to dissolve the Punjab Assembly, Punjab Governor Baligur Rehman of the PML-N requested a vote of confidence from PTI-PMLQ Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi. On Thursday, he received it and forwarded it to the latter.
On Saturday night, the assembly was declared adjourned. Mr. Khan claims he sacrificed his two governments—Punjab and Kyber Pakhtunkhwa—for the sake of getting the federal government to call for immediate elections.
A vote of no confidence led to Mr. Khan’s removal from office in April of last year.
