ISLAMABAD: Senator Ali Zafar of PTI said that President Dr Arif Alvi can ask the prime minister Shehbaz Sharif to obtain a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, to demonstrate that he still commands the confidence of majority lawmakers in the parliament.
Speaking in a Geo TV’s talk show, Senator Ali Zafar said that PM Shehbaz Sharif got two more votes (172) to become PM as PML-Q’s MNA Salik Hussain and Tariq Bashir Cheema, who are federal ministers in the current government, also voted for Shehbaz Sharif.
While Salik Hussain and Cheema have supported the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, two other senior members of their party, Pervez Elahi and Moonis Elahi, have supported Sharif’s rival, former prime minister Imran Khan.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that if a lawmaker crossed party lines, during voting in the lower house, then his/her vote would be discarded.
In light of the verdict, Ali Zafar said that Salik Hussain and Tariq Bashir Cheema will have to follow directions issued by their party leader.
“If these two members are given directions [by PML-Q’s leadership] that during the vote of confidence they will have to vote in a certain way then the [present] government can be removed,” he told the host of the show.
The chairman of the PML-Q, officially, is Hussain’s father, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
The last time a prime minister obtained a vote of confidence was in March last year, by then prime minister Imran Khan, who received 178 votes in the 342-member National Assembly.
On whether this judgement will apply to the election for chief minister in Punjab, the PTI senator said it will apply to the past, present and future events as well.
When asked if after the top court’s judgement a vote of no confidence cannot be brought against a sitting prime minister in the future, Zafar said it can.
He gave the example of former prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who had suggested that if the majority of members from his party leave him then a defection clause will not apply to the lawmakers and their votes will be counted. But if a minority group abandons the prime minister then their votes in a no-trust motion would not be counted.
