LAHORE, JAN 14: In what appears to be a tit-for-tat move, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan said Saturday that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will have to take a trust vote.
The comment comes after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) threatened to leave the coalition government in the centre — whose votes are crucial to keep the incumbent prime minister in office.
MQM-P had threatened to quit the federal government if their reservations regarding delimitations in Karachi and Hyderabad were not addressed ahead of the local government polls — scheduled for January 15.
However, in a bid to keep them in the alliance, PM Shehbaz, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had assured the MQM-P of addressing their concerns.
Against the backdrop of the recent political developments in the country, Khan, during an interview on a private television channel, said: “PTI has passed the test. Now, Shehbaz Sharif will be fully tested.”
Referring to the recent vote of confidence taken by Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, Khan said: “Our numbers had been completed. Moonis Elahi worked hard at the last moment to achieve the required numbers of the PML-Q.”
The cricketer-turned-politician while denying allegations of horse trading said that the PDM was still stuck to the “politics of Changa Manga”.
“The country has changed and they don’t realise it,” the PTI chairman said, adding that for the first time in the country’s history, Punjab stood against the Punjab establishment during the by-elections in July 2022. “The by-polls changed the country’s politics.”
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