The UAE News web report: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan secured majority votes on Saturday to win the vote of confidence from the National Assembly.
The special session for a confidence vote was summoned by the president after the premier asked for it voluntarily following the PTI losing a crucial seat in the Senate elections.
The premier needed 172 votes to win the confidence vote. Announcing the result, the speaker said that eight years ago, Prime Minister Imran had been elected to the post with 176 votes. “Today, he has secured 178 votes,” he said.
Immediately after announcing the result, the speaker gave the floor to Amir Liaquat, who recited poetry as an ode to Imran Khan. After him, MQM’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui took the floor and congratulated the premier on his success.
“You got the confidence [of the House], now it is your turn to return that confidence to the nation,” Siddiqui said, asking the premier to fulfill his promises to his party and the country.
Following Siddiqui, Fehmida Mirza spoke, saying that the government’s allies would always stand with the premier whenever there was a threat to the continuity of democracy despite any grievances they might have.
Mirza then went on to criticise the way in which the recently concluded Senate elections were held, questioning whether the Election Commission of Pakistan was able to guard the process against “corrupt practice”.
Earlier, lawmakers, including PM Imran, arrived at the Parliament House while PTI supporters and PML-N leaders gathered outside.
Tensions are high as both sides became confrontational and PML-N leaders alleged they had been manhandled.
Before the session began, Punjab CM Buzdar, Balochistan CM Jam Kamal, Senate Chairperson Sadiq Sanjrani and other officials met in NA Speaker Asad Qaiser’s chamber, where they discussed the vote of confidence.
According to the participants of the meeting, the prime minister has “set a unique trend”. The chief ministers, senators and
The session started at 12:15pm with recitation from the Holy Quran and a naat without the opposition in attendance. Later, the national anthem was played in the House at which all lawmakers stood up in respect.
Following this, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi tabled the resolution on which voting will be held and the NA speaker read out rules on how the voting will be conducted. Later, bells were sounded inside the House so that all lawmakers outside the premises could make their way inside after which the doors were sealed.
The resolution, which was read out by the speaker again, says: “That this House reposes confidence in the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Mr Imran Khan, as required under clause (7) of Article 91 of the Constitution Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
After reading out the resolution, the speaker directed the legislators who wanted to caste their votes to make their way to another chamber inside the House, where NA staff would record their votes.
After casting their votes, the lawmakers are making their way back from the lobby to the House and results will be announced shortly.
PM Imran had announced earlier this week that he would seek a vote of confidence from his party’s lawmakers, following an upset in the Senate election on March 3. While the ruling PTI made gains, it experienced a shocking upset on the Islamabad seat where PPP’s Yousuf Raza Gilani bagged 169 votes, defeating the government’s nominee, Hafeez Shaikh, who received 164 votes, meaning that several ruling alliance MNAs had voted for the Pakistan Democratic Movement candidate.
This is the first time a prime minister has undertaken such an exercise after the passage of the 18th Amendment.
Prior to this, the law required every prime minister to take a vote of confidence from the Assembly within 30 days of being elected — a vote that Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and other prime ministers of the past had to seek after their election.
Since 2010, however, the law does not require such a practice. In fact, according to clause 7 of Article 91 of the Constitution, the president “shall not exercise his powers under this clause unless he is satisfied that the prime minister does not command the confidence of the majority” in the Assembly.
Meanwhile, dozens of PTI supporters have gathered outside the Parliament Lodges, holding up banners and chanting slogans in support of PM Imran.
PML-N leaders, including ex-premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal, Musaddiq Malik, Marriyum Aurangzeb and Khurram Dastagir, also arrived outside the lodges and held a press conference to criticise the premier’s move for a trust vote.
Abbasi said the PM did not have the power to go for a trust vote according to the Constitution, adding that this power rested with the president only if he believed the premier had lost confidence of the legislature.
After the presser, however, the PML-N leaders alleged they were harassed and manhandled by PTI supporters present at the site, adding that there was no police or security for their protection.
