Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan has hinted at returning to Pakistan’s National Assembly to be part of the consultative process of a caretaker setup for general elections later this year.
Following Khan’s ouster as prime minister through a no-confidence motion in April last year, the 131 PTI members of the National Assembly had resigned. However, the NA speaker has yet to accept their resignations and called in all the PTI lawmakers to verify if their resignations are “genuine and voluntary”.
Claiming to be in contact with several lawmakers from the ruling PML-N for caretaker setup and early elections, Khan told journalists: “If we don’t return to the National Assembly, the PML-N led coalition government will form the caretaker setup (after completion of its tenure in this August) in consultation with handpicked opposition leader Raja Riaz. We won’t let this happen.”
This is the first time Khan spoke his mind about going back to the National Assembly since his ouster as PM.
Khan has also said that President Arif Alvi will soon ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to secure a vote of confidence from the National Assembly. “We are going to test Shehbaz Sharif. He is going to have sleepless nights as we are in contact with PML-N MNAs. He will struggle to prove majority in the house,” he said.
On the other hand, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the federal coalition has required numbers in the Lower House if the President asks Shehbaz to take a vote of confidence.
Pakistan’s Punjab Assembly has already been dissolved by Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi of PTI-PMLQ on Khan’s insistence.
Khan said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will be dissolved this week as well to push the federal coalition to announce the snap polls. “If the federal government does not agree on snap polls, elections will be held in Punjab and KP provinces after 90 days,” he said.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Monday that the government would welcome to the parliament the lawmakers of Khan’s party.
“Of course, we will welcome them (back) into the assembly as even when they were leaving, we had said it was an undemocratic decision,” he said while talking to ARY News.
The minister was asked to respond to Khan’s remarks that he could be open to sending his party’s lawmakers back to the National Assembly in order to discuss a caretaker setup before the next election.
Sanaullah said that the PTI lawmakers would have to withdraw their resignations before returning to the parliament. He said Khan can also ask the speaker of the National Assembly to appoint him as the leader of the opposition.
The opposition leader is a key post as he along with the prime minister appoints the caretaker prime minister to oversee elections.
However, the minister said that the caretaker government would be introduced upon the expiry of the full five-year term of the assembly.
“When the tenure of the assemblies would end on August 16, 2023, he (Khan) will be part of the consultation as the leader of the opposition and then the decision of the caretaker would be made,” he said.
With PTI inputs
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