Islamabad: As Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan continues to face growing pressure to resign, he has announced that he will seek a vote of confidence on Saturday perhaps in an attempt to prove the legitimacy of his government after an embarrassing defeat of the finance minister in the hotly-contested Senate elections.
Imran Khan announced the vote of confidence as he addressed the nation on television. He criticised the grand Opposition alliance for "making a mockery of democracy", adding that he will hold corrupt politicians accountable.
Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate and former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani defeated ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Wednesday, delivering an embarrassing defeat to Prime Minister Khan who had personally campaigned for his Cabinet colleague.
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The PDM is an 11-party alliance set up in September last year to de-throne the Imran Khan government which it has accused of coming to power after rigging of elections in 2018.
"I will take a vote of confidence the day after tomorrow (Saturday). I will ask my members (in the National Assembly) to show if they have confidence in me. If they say they have no confidence, I will sit on Opposition benches," the 68-year-old cricketer-turned-politician said.
"If I am out of the government, I will go to the people and bring them out to continue my struggle for the country. I will not let these traitors (who plundered the country) sit in peace. I call them traitors because they are looters," Khan added.
Khan's party has 157 members in the 342-member National Assembly. Opposition PML-N and PPP have 84 and 54 members, respectively in the lower house of Parliament.
Explaining the political situation after Senate elections, Khan said that it was important to talk about the same because the problems in Pakistan can be understood through the kind of election that happened as he alleged that the country's leadership comes from within the members of parliament "and here you have people becoming Senators after bribing others".
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"The one who becomes a senator and wants to become one uses money and who do they buy? Members of Parliament What joke is happening with our democracy? What kind of democracy is this?" a visibly upset Khan added.
He also came down heavily at the Election Commission which he claimed failed to stop corruption in the elections. "You (ECP) discredited democracy you damaged the morality of the nation by doing nothing to stop vote-buying."
Commenting on the vote of confidence, former premier and senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that, "the Prime Minister has lost the moral ground to remain in office.... he should announce elections".
Amid the high octane political drama, army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, accompanied by the ISI chief Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, met Prime Minister Khan and discussed matters of national interest.
(With Agency Inputs)