File photo of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. YouTube
PPP chairman claims united opposition is moving toward ‘transparent elections’ by introducing no-confidence motion against prime minister
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday claimed Prime Minister Imran Khan is planning to “stop parliamentarians from voting” on the no-confidence motion against him, and warned that the opposition will not “allow him to vote.”
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said that the opposition had undertaken a democratic solution to an “undemocratic” person, adding that it was the opposition’s constitutional right to table the no-confidence motion. Claiming that the successful ouster of the prime minister would place the country on the path to “transparent elections,” he said it was unfortunate that Khan was trying to prevent dissident lawmakers from voting.
“I will appeal to the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the CEC [chief election commissioner],” he said of the PTI’s attempts to preemptively cancel votes from dissident lawmakers. “You must have heard the statements of the prime minister. You must have seen the government’s tactics. I appeal to you that every member should be allowed to use his right to vote and no one should be allowed to stop them,” he said, adding that the government’s actions were a violation of Article 6 of the Constitution, which relates to “meddling” in the constitutional process.
“When everyone can see that this man [prime minister] is trying to commit ‘rigging’ and his representatives are announcing that the votes of the members will not be counted and police are forcibly barging into Parliament Lodges to arrest honorable members, what message is being sent?” asked Bhutto-Zardari.
“People should know who has received funding from India and Israel,” Bhutto-Zardari said, referring to the PTI’s foreign funding case. Claiming that “everything will be clear” once the Election Commission of Pakistan announces a decision regarding the foreign funding case, he alleged that Khan was using abusive language because he was panicking and could see his defeat. “Imran is an undemocratic man and does not believe in democracy, law or justice. He believes in a fixed match and only knows how to rig the elections. The prime minister is not trying to win the no-confidence but wants to do rigging. We will not let this defeated man rig anything. The people of the country will not let him rig anything,” he said.
Noting that the PPP’s discussion with other political parties, including ruling coalition partners, had been “going better than expected,” he claimed that the situation would have been different if a person who had the “people’s mandate” had been in power.
“We would like to ask the P.M. who he termed ‘animal’ in his speech,” he said of a speech by Khan from the weekend. “The prime minister’s desperate efforts will not be successful,” he added.