ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s opposition parties on Monday filed a no-confidence motion against the chief minister of the most densely populated Punjab province, amid the country’s ongoing political turmoil that sees Prime Minister Imran Khan facing a similar vote, also known as a no-trust motion, in parliament.
Chief Minister Usman Buzdar was handpicked by the premier for the top post in Punjab in August 2018, where Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party has ruled for more than three years with a slim majority.
Khan had continued to support Buzdar despite criticisms by PTI members at the time, who believed Buzdar was not a known political figure who was competent to manage the province.
Ahead of the no-confidence vote in parliament against Khan that is expected to take place this week, the opposition has filed the same motion against Buzdar in the Punjab Assembly while questioning his performance and saying he had lost the support of the majority of lawmakers.
“We have submitted the no-confidence motion against the Punjab chief minister after completing our homework,” Rana Mashood Ahmad, a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N, lawmaker and one of the movers of the motion, told Arab News.
“Our negotiations are underway with other political parties for the formation of the next set-up in the province and we will reveal all these details in the next three to four days.”
Ahmad said his party wanted to rid the people of Punjab of “bad governance and rampant corruption,” and they had decided to remove the “incompetent government” through constitutional and legal means.
In response to the motion, spokesperson of the Punjab government, Hasaan Khawar, said the chief minister would defeat it in the provincial assembly.
“We will fight the no-confidence motion by the opposition,” he wrote in a tweet.
“Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar is in constant touch with members of the (provincial) assembly. Our numbers are full, and the opposition will face a humiliating defeat.”
Buzdar had become a polarizing figure in Punjab, where calls for his removal were voiced by members of a PTI dissident group and the government’s coalition partners in recent months.
Monday’s motion against the chief minister adds to the opposition’s moves to oust Khan’s government, which has ruled Pakistan since August 2018
The opposition needs the support of 172 lawmakers in the country’s 342-member National Assembly for the motion to prevail. The prime minister last Wednesday told journalists that he would not resign in the face of the opposition’s action: “My prediction is that we will win the no-confidence match.”
The opposition says the prime minister had lost his parliamentary majority after a dozen defections by party lawmakers and that it has the required numbers to win the vote in the federal parliament.