Is PM Imran Khan being shown the door?
Pak Chronicle Report
Islamabad
There is tsunami like situation in the political arena of Pakistan after the defeat of the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf on the general seat of Islamabad in the Senate election. Tsunami has been the popular expression of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan for the past many years despite the fact that it reflects disaster or calamity.
The defeat of advisor to PM on Finance, Hafeez Shaikh in the senate election is carrying more meaning and consequences compared with what it looks like apparently. The opposition is demanding from the prime minister to resign as the PM on the ground that he had lost the majority in the assembly after Sheikh’s defeat in the Senate election.
Moreover, the opposition is also looking forward to move the motion of no confidence against the prime minister in the National Assembly in coming days.
The Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan is ready to take vote of confidence from the National Assembly on Saturday and he has already announced to sit on opposition benches if he fails to obtain the confidence of the parliament as the leader of the House.
All the political indicators are suggesting that it’s now time of ‘change’ in the political landscape of the country. Perhaps the prime minister would survive in his move of seeking vote of confidence from the National Assembly but would he really be victorious against the move of opposition in the shape of no confidence motion against him, is the million dollar question.
It’s pertinent to mention here that vote of confidence is conducted openly by show of hands while the motion of no confidence is done through secret balloting. Any legislator in the National Assembly would be facing defection clause of the constitution and consequently be de-seated if he/she opts to vote against the direction of the party to which he/she belongs to in the election of the leader of the house etc. So there are little chances that any MNA of ruling party would be parting ways in case of open balloting but there are high chances of motion of no confidence to succeed against the prime minister as it would be conducted through secret balloting.
The defeat of Hafeez Shiekh in the Senate election was the byproduct secret balloting against which the incumbent government has been making several attempts to get rid of it before the Senate’s elections. However, it could not succeed in this process.
As per Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House, 2007 of the National Assembly, following the convening of the session, a resolution for the vote of confidence will be moved as the order of the day. Then exercise will start through a division of vote immediately.
However, in case of a no-confidence move, a notice of resolution has to be given by not less than 20% members of the total membership of the House.
The resolution will not be voted upon until three days and not later than seven days
There is a democratic procedure to remove the Prime Minister from his office if he loses confidence of the majority of the members of the National Assembly. In this respect a resolution for a vote of no-confidence is moved by not less than 20% of the total membership of the National Assembly. If the resolution is passed by majority of the total membership of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister immediately relinquished powers.
The opposition parties will need a total of 172 votes to get the motion approved. It currently has 156 seats in the National Assembly.
As the waves of tsunami seem to be moving against the PM and his party at the moment it looks like that he may lose his position as the leader of the House in coming days if the opposition continues to perform as well as it did in the Senate’s election on the general seat of Islamabad. Ideally the opposition was not in position to grab the general seat from Islamabad in the senate election but it did this job and now the government is facing the music.
Ends
