With the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) retaining Pakistan on its terrorism financing “grey list” again, the united opposition of Pakistan has got some more ammunition against Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The anti-Khan is now all set to bring a no-confidence motion against the beleaguered Prime Minister.
Pakistan People’s Party leader and former Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf asked Imran Khan to convene the National Assembly and explain why the country has not been able to exit the “grey” list since 2018.
But Imran Khan is not ready to enter the trap laid by the opposition, which is ready to submit a notice to requisition a session of the National Assembly within a couple of days to table the no confidence motion. According to Pakistani media, the notice is signed by 86 members of the assembly though it requires only 68. The opposition is determined to table motions of no-Confidence not only against Imran Khan, but against the speaker as well as the deputy speaker so that they could not play any “mischief”.
But the big question is, when would the opposition table the no-confidence motion which they have been discussing for the last two months?
According to Pakistani sources, the main reason for the delay among others is that the opposition wanted to be sure that the Pakistani military establishment would not come to rescue its selected Prime Minister Khan. Another reason was that the leaders of the PPP were not in favour of snap polls after the exit of Imran Khan while Nawaz Sharif was keen for early elections.
“Now the deadlock is over and there is a consensus to hold immediate elections,” said Maulana Fazal -ur- Rahman, head of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, a united platform of 11 anti-Imran Khan parties.
The Opposition's decision to take the plunge follows weeks of hectic politicking by both opposition heavyweights and government stalwarts. They were aiming to get 20 votes of allies of the ruling party while trying to poach an equal number from the Imran Khan led government. The opposition strength stands at 163, 9 short of the magic number of 172 to oust Khan. The total number of votes of allies is 17.
“Yes we have the numbers. The no-trust motion would be like a “walk in the park” for the opposition parties now that we have the magical figure to oust the government,” Rehman claimed, adding that the next week is very crucial.
The opposition also hopes that “if the umpire (military establishment)” is neutral, more members of the ruling parties might break ranks when they see that the opposition has the requisite numbers without them.
Imran Khan is feeling heat and has deployed all his resources of state and government to thwart the opposition, including arrests of opposition figures, political bribes to allies and harassment of independent media. Khan claims that he and the military establishment are on the same page.
According to Pakistani insiders, Imran Khan is unable to “digest” that the military establishment can dump their blue-eyed boy.
Also Read : Countdown begins for Imran Khan’s exit as the Pak army helps opposition to get no-confidence numbers
“Khan is unlike Sharifs or Bhuttos. He believes that with the help of ‘divine’ powers, he can outsmart opposition and the army. Khan has openly said that he would be dangerous for those who tried to throw him out ” says one Pakistani watcher, adding that he might announce elections. Imran Khan can also ask the speaker to prorogue the session of the Assembly indefinitely using some technical reasons. After all, the next general elections are due next year.
Despite all these apprehensions, Pakistani experts believe that this is the last chance for the opposition to remove Imran Khan.
The opposition has done its homework but nothing is guaranteed in Pakistan's present hybrid regime.
“They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It is now or never,” writes the veteran Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi in his column in The Friday Times.
Also Read : Pakistan opposition ready to move no-trust vote to oust Imran Khan as long march kicks off from Karachi
