Bilawal, Shehbaz and Fazl announce staging sit-in in NA if session didn’t begin with no-confidence motion
Islamabad
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday threatened to block Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) conference, scheduled to take place on March 22-23 in Islamabad, if no-trust vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan is delayed by the National Assembly speaker.
“We want Monday’s session to start with no-confidence motion but if it is not summoned by Monday then we will stage a sit-in the house… we will then see how you will be able to organise the OIC conference,” Bilawal said at a joint press conference, held following a meeting of the opposition leaders at Shehbaz’s residence in Islamabad.
He urged to NA Speaker Asad Qaiser not to become a “worker of PTI”, asking him to think about the country and OIC conference first. “If the speaker doesn’t change his undemocratic behaviour, I will convince the entire opposition… we want the OIC moot to go smoothly but it appears that the government doesn’t want that to happen,” he added.
Bilawal said that the government doesn’t want the opposition to remain peaceful as it first attacked Parliament Lodges and then attacked Sindh House in the federal capital.
“Imran Khan, after seeing his defeat, has started taking these undemocratic measures… I want to congratulate the masses as Imran Khan has lost the majority and his regime is over,” he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Shehbaz said the attack on Sindh House was in fact an attack on Pakistan. “All this is happening on the direction of Imran Niazi… the one who is confident of winning never fights… Imran Khan is ready to cross all limits to save his government,” he added.
The PML-N leader said that the opposition will only use constitutional means to make their no-trust motion successful, adding that the PTI allies have also turned their backs on the government.
“They (government allies) are saying that there is no horse-trading taking place and because of PTI government’s incompetence, dissident lawmakers are finding it difficult to face people in their constituencies,” he added.
The leader of opposition in NA further said the speaker will not be mentioned positively in the history books and he will not be able to refer to people in his own constituency if he continues to attend PTI meetings and favouring the ruling party.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is also the president of Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM), said that PM Imran was using ‘vulgar language’ during his public gatherings.
“When the members were being transported via a plane [to support the government] then the act was called the voice of conscience but now when the same members are voting against the government, they are being called mules,” he added.
Fazl said that not even a filthy person can use the vulgar language being used in political gatherings these days. “Our destination is near… we will take this illegitimate and incompetent government to its end,” he further said.
The news conference was held a day after the ruling PTI lawmakers and workers stormed the Sindh House in Islamabad in protest against the dissident members of the ruling party, who were staying inside the building.
PTI National Assembly members (MNAs), Faheem Khan and Ataullah Niazi, along with a group of charged party workers entered the Sindh House, knocking down a gate and shouting slogans and holding Lotas (spouted globulars) in their hands to symbolise turncoats.
The Sindh House came into focus this week, especially after Premier Imran and some of his ministers accused the opposition of indulging in horse-trading ahead of the crucial vote on the no-confidence motion. They said that the Sindh House had become a centre for buying lawmakers.
The disgruntled PTI lawmakers, however, denied the allegation, when they appeared in footages aired by various TV channels on Friday. They said that they were staying in the Sindh House because of security concerns.
The top leadership of PPP termed the attack “an act of terrorism”, with its chief Bilawal saying: “A well-planned attack on Sindh House is tantamount to an attack on Sindh.”
The PPP chairman questioned how the protesters crossed dozens of police checkpoints and reached the Sindh House in the capital’s Red Zone. “The Sindh House is Sindh’s identity in the federation. Imran Khan showed his real hatred by invading Sindh,” Bilawal said.
