Ousted as Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan is back on the street trying to mobilise mob support while playing the victim card. After his loss, Khan has been telling his supporters to come out on the streets alleging the opposition colluded with the United States to unseat him.
Khan’s strategy is to keep the momentum of street protests to pressure parliament to hold early elections.
Contrary to earlier reports, Imran Khan has also decided to field his former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi against the united opposition’s candidate Shehbaz Sharif for the post of Prime Minister.
The Pakistan National assembly will convene at 2pm today to elect the new leader of the House.
Earlier on Sunday while filing his nomination, former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi raised objections against Shehbaz Sharif’s nomination saying that he was not eligible as was involved in several corruption cases and was out on bail.
“Shehbaz would be the first prime minister in the world who is on bail for 10 months in corruption cases,” said Qureshi.
According to Dawn, a war of words broke out between Qureshi and the opposition leaders in the Assembly.
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However, Imran Khan’s PTI leaders' objections were rejected and the nomination papers for both candidates were accepted.
It is still not clear whether Imran Khan’s members will participate in the proceedings of the Assembly on Monday or not. Earlier Khan’s former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary had said that during the party’s core committee suggested resignations en masse from the lower house of parliament if PTI’s reservations regarding the nomination of Shehbaz Sharif as the PM remained unaddressed.
“If our reservations on Shehbaz are not addressed, we will resign en masse on Monday,” Fawad told the media.
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Hum chor dakoun ke sath nahin beth sakte -Fawad Chaudhry pic.twitter.com/3lEUUBhNor
— Aamir Ghazanfar (@AamirGhazanfarS) April 10, 2022
There is resentment in Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Party (PTI) and many members are against resigning. One of the senior party members told Imran Khan that almost 95 per cent of the party members were against quitting the assembly.
“Yes, we have some voices trying to convince us that en masse resignations will give a walkover to the rivals, who will enjoy a free hand inside the legislature and outside,” The News quoted one senior PTI member as saying.
Meanwhile consultations are on among the parties of the united opposition over the formation of the government. According to Daily Jang, Shebaz Sharif’s cabinet will have 12 ministers from PML-N and 7 ministers from PPP.
Quoting the sources, the daily says that JUI-F will be given four ministries, MQM two, BNP Mengal, ANP, Jamhoori Watan Party and Balochistan Awami Party one each.
“We are aware of the enormity of challenges facing the country both internally and externally. We need to put in hard effort to undo the damages done by Imran Khan,” Sharif told Al Jazeera.
