ISLAMABAD, MAR 9: Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday called upon the speaker of the National Assembly to convene a session of the lower house “as soon as possible” in order to “wrap up” the opposition’s no-confidence motion against the prime minister, adding that the country was not in a position to afford political chaos for a long time.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Chaudhry claimed that the PTI had the support of at least 184 lawmakers in the National Assembly — sufficient to doom the opposition’s motion.
“I challenge the opposition to bring the motion to House if they have 172 numbers,” the minister said as he addressed a press conference alongside Energy Minister Hammad Azhar in Islamabad.
He said the government would not hold any talks with the opposition, adding that “we tried to talk to them on electoral reforms and other matters of public interest but they did not respond to us”.
Chaudhry said the fading popularity of the PPP and the PML-N, the two main opposition parties, due to their corruption would result in their downfall.
Meanwhile, Azhar said the opposition was not able to tolerate the economic feats of the PTI government. “Despite all the crisis, Pakistan is progressing and we are being seen as a model for development.”
He said Pakistan’s current growth rate stood at 5.5pc even amid “all the challenges at hand”.
The energy minister said the political commotion being caused by the opposition was also an attack on the economy, adding “the opposition is also trying to shake the confidence of investors who are quite optimistic about Pakistan’s future.”
He maintained that PM Imran would emerge even stronger in the next two weeks, insisting that he “enjoys complete support of people”.
