Several legislators from Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ruling party have withdrawn their support for him ahead of a no-confidence vote, stoking more uncertainty over whether the former cricketer can hang on to power.
The development on Thursday came a day after a key ally said Khan was in danger of losing his coalition partners, flagging a “tilt” by his partners in government towards their opponents.
The Opposition parties have rallied under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Movement to topple Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government on charges of economic mismanagement and poor foreign policy.
The differences between Bajwa and Khan over the appointment of the new DG (ISI) has also not helped the latter’s cause. The meeting is being seen as an attempt by the former cricketer to get back in the good books of the Pakistan Army, which has, so far, maintained neutrality over the no-confidence vote.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan, said on Friday that there was "no room" for minus one in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Addressing a press conference alongside Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar in Islamabad, he said there was a rumour going on that "everything is okay but Imran Khan. Everything can be saved if we go towards minus one."
The threat of political turmoil in the nuclear-armed nation is growing as the opposition looks to remove Khan in a vote that could come as soon as this month after a no-confidence motion was unveiled in parliament last week.
“We have differences with the prime minister,” one of his legislators, Raja Riaz, told local Geo News TV.
“We will vote according to our conscience,” he said, claiming there were more than 20 defectors.
The Opposition needs 172 votes in 342-member National Assembly to unseat Khan and, with reports suggesting that a “substantial” number of PTI legislators, housed in the Sindh House in Islamabad, are widely believed to vote against their own party exercising the “conscience vote.”
On Friday, PTI supporters forcibly entered the Sindh House in Islamabad after protesting outside for hours against dissident MNAs who are staying in the building.
Television footage showed PTI workers climbing over the walls of Sindh House with some of them later breaking down the doors to enter the building. They also carried lotas in protest against "turncoats".
PTI’s Faheem Khan and Attaullah Niaz were arrested on Friday for leading a group of party workers who entered the Sindh House after breaking the gate.
The opposition says that Khan has fallen out with Pakistan’s powerful military whose support they see as critical for any political party to attain power in the way the former cricket star’s upstart party did four years ago.
Khan and the military deny the accusation.
