ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition parties are working out the details to bring a no-confidence motion against the government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, with one opposition leader saying the move will be finalized in less than two weeks.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement, an opposition alliance comprising nine parties, first announced plans to bring the motion on Feb. 11.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said Pakistanis are disillusioned with the current government.
“People are fed up with the performance of this government, and they want us to overthrow it,” Abbasi, a former prime minister, told Arab News on Sunday.
The alliance, 16 votes short of the 172 needed to oust the government at Pakistan’s National Assembly, has been trying to woo smaller parliamentary parties who are currently allied with the government.
“We have the required numbers in the National Assembly to dislodge this government,” Abbasi said. “Hopefully, we will be moving the no-confidence against the government in the next ten days.”
The alliance was formed in September 2020 against the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, and originally consisted of 11 opposition factions. They held several anti-government rallies across Pakistan, but developed differences over political strategy and lost two factions.
The PDM is now working out the details before submitting the no-trust motion, as they “want to be ready beforehand for any government retaliatory movement,” Aslam Ghauri, a spokesperson for Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazal, told Arab News.
Ghauri also said the alliance has secured at least six extra votes to oust the incumbent government.
The Pakistan Peoples Party, a major opposition party and former member of the PDM alliance, launched an anti-government march in Karachi on Sunday, in another attempt to oust the administration in Islamabad. The rally is expected to cross more than 30 different cities and towns before reaching the federal capital on March 8.
“Our protest march will prove a last nail in the coffin of this government,” Sen. Palwasha Khan, deputy information secretary of the PPP, told Arab News.
Khan also said the opposition has secured the numbers required to win the no-confidence motion, adding: “The government’s allied parties will also see public sentiment through our march and decide to quit.”
Prime Minister Khan took office following the 2018 general elections, which Pakistan’s opposition parties alleged were rigged.
Officials from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting did not immediately respond to requests seeking comments for this story.
In a statement issued Sunday, Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain referred to the alliance as “leaderless” and “aimless,” while adding that it did not pose a serious threat to the government.
“We have been hearing for the last fifteen to twenty days that the no-trust move was around the corner,” he said, “but in reality that is beyond their power as they lack the capacity to bring the motion.”
