LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz has alleged that the PTI government had used the help of secret agencies to secure support for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vote of confidence in the National Assembly a day earlier.
Addressing a press conference after a party meeting attended by all senior PML-N leaders today, Maryam said, “The ways you used Pakistan’s secret agencies for your purposes is very shameful”.
The PML-N vice president said that Prime Minister Imran Khan knew he would be losing badly if the agencies allegedly hadn’t supported him.
She claimed two MNAs who had put up resistance to the pressure were locked up in a container for four hours and forced to vote in PM Imran’s favour.
The government legislators were in touch with her party and she alleged that the agencies had made people disappear on behalf of the government ahead of Saturday’s confidence motion.
PM Imran was prompted to seek the vote after the ruling coalition suffered an upset in the March 3 Senate elections on the seat for Islamabad where Abdul Hafeez Shaikh lost to the joint PDM candidate Gilani. PM Imran won the vote of confidence with 178 ballots cast in his favor — six more than needed.
Today, Maryam said the vote taken by Imran Khan has no moral value, legal, Constitutional and political, asking the party (PTI) how the lawmakers who voted for PDM candidate in the Senate elections could change their minds in only two days.
“It has come to our personal information that two lawmakers who were not prepared to vote for Imran until the last instant were taken to the compound of an institution in Golra near Islamabad, kept locked up in a container there for four hours and were compelled by personnel of agencies to vote in favor of PM,” she claimed.
Earlier the day, Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz have demanded to probe a controversy of insufficient members during the vote of confidence for Prime Minister Imran Khan held in the National Assembly a day earlier.
During a press conference following a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz, Chairman Bilawal claimed, “Imran Khan was neither voluntarily voted as the prime minister by the Members of the Assembly, nor was he voluntarily voted for in this vote of confidence.”
“PM Imran ran a race alone and declared himself the winner, the PPP chairman said, adding, “But even this was manipulated.” “This allegation elevated by a member of the opposition present in the Assembly, that the number of votes announced does not match the number of people in attendance, must be probed,” Bilawal demanded.
Bilawal expressed optimism that the candidate fielded by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for the Senate chairperson election will emerge victorious because the opposition parties will together challenge the PTI-led ruling coalition.
Elaborating, the PPP leader said contacts were being made with the senators elected in the March 3 polls to request them to vote for Yousuf Gilani in the Senate chairman election. He added that Gilani himself had already requested most of the senators to vote for him.
The Chaudhry brothers had been allies of the PPP government during Gilani’s tenure as the prime minister, saying he will go to their house and ask for their votes, Bilawal noted.
On this occasion, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz said a probe must be conducted into the controversy of insufficient members during the vote of confidence.
