New Delhi: Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan claimed that President Arif Alvi will ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to face a vote of confidence soon. The remark comes as he's seen stepping up his efforts to press the government for early polls. During a media interaction and also in an interview on Hum News TV, Khan said: “Shehbaz Sharif tested us in Punjab and now it’s his turn to prove whether he enjoys a majority in the National Assembly or not,” reported news agency PTI.
While citing differences in the federal coalition as Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) threatened to leave over the issue of local body polls in Hyderabad and Karachi, Pakistan Tehreek-ie-Insaf chairman Khan said: “In the first, Shehbaz will be tested for a trust vote... and later we have other plans for him.” He added that President Alvi belongs to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the federal coalition is surviving on a very thin majority. In National Assembly, MQM-P has seven members, if it decides to quit, the Shehbaz government can't survive.
Khan has already made it clear that in order to push the federal government to announce early polls, he will sacrifice both Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies as he believes that only a fresh election can steer the country out of the economic crisis.
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The federal government on the other hand insists that general elections will be held post the completion of the tenure of the current government, which will be in August.
Meanwhile, the Punjab assembly of Pakistan was automatically dissolved on Saturday when the province's Governor Balighur Rehman refused to sign the summary sent by CM Chaudhry Parvez Elahi to disband the provincial legislature.
Elahi, a joint candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the PML-Q, signed the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly summary hours after he managed to obtain a vote of confidence.
Imran Khan claimed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will also be dissolved in the next couple of days.
(With inputs from PTI)