Prime Minister Imran Khan may dissolve assemblies incase of a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly, sources state.
Sources add that the Prime Miniser had pre-decided to dissolve assemblies incase Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lost both the Senate seats from Islamabad.
The government will summon a session of the National Assembly, where Prime Minister Imran Khan will seek a vote of confidence. This follows an upset in the Senate elections on Wednesday when Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) won the general seat from the Federal Capital against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced this while addressing a press conference on Wednesday.
“Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) has unanimously decided that Prime Minister Imran Khan will seek a vote of confidence from the National Assembly,” Qureshi said while addressing a press conference along with Federal Ministers Shafqat Mehmood, Asad Umar, Shireen Mazari, Fawad Chaudhry, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Hammad Azhar, and others.
He announced that the government will move a summary to the President to summon a new session of the lower house of Parliament for a vote of confidence for Prime Minister Imran Khan from the National Assembly.
Describing the victory of Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on a general seat of Senate from the Federal Capital as a “negation of democracy,” Qureshi said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to seek a vote of confidence from the National Assembly.
Senate results
The ruling PTI has suffered a major set back in the Senate election when PDM candidate Yousaf Raza Gilani defeated Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh for the Islamabad seat.
Former prime minister Gilani polled 169 votes against 164 votes of Hafeez Sheikh, with seven votes rejected. Yousaf Gilani has despite the scandal of a video of his son Ali Haider, who was telling lawmakers how to waste their vote.
Interestingly, the same electoral college that rejected Hafeez Sheikh, elected PTI’s Fozia Arshad for reserved women’s seat. Earlier, PPP’s Sherry Rehman and Salim Madviwala won from Sindh.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Shabaz Gill has said that the PTI intends to challenge the result, which as of yet is a preliminary unofficial result.
Polling for the high-stakes Senate elections on 37 seats in the National and provincial assemblies has been conducted. Polling started on March 3 at 9 am and ended at 5 pm.
