No-trust move: PPP, PML-N bar MNAs from travelling abroad

• The move aims to stop the MNAs from becoming part of official delegations going abroad.
• “Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has directed all MNAs of the party to remain in Islamabad,”  says say Shahzia Atta Marri. 
• In case of arrests of MNAs and not issuing production orders for them, a no-confidence motion could be tabled against the speaker first.

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to ensure the numbers required for the success of the proposed no-confidence motion against the PTI-led government, the main Opposition parties — PPP and PML-N — have barred their members of the National Assembly (MNAs) from travelling abroad and asked them to ensure their presence in Islamabad.

The move aims to stop the MNAs from becoming part of official delegations going abroad amid the possible submission of a requisition and a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly. 

“Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has directed all MNAs of the party to remain in Islamabad,” PPP Information Secretary Shahzia Atta Marri said on Sunday.

According to a report published in The News, PML-N Information Secretary Marriyam Aurangzeb said the party members would not be part of any foreign tour nominated by NA Speaker Asad Qaiser. She said all members of the party had been instructed to stay in the country. “PML-N MNAs have been barred from travelling abroad at expenses from the national exchequer. We hope sensible members of the PTI will also refuse to be part of the tours,” she added.

Meanwhile, members of the joint Opposition have started to gather in the federal capital for the success of the planned no-confidence motion against the prime minister, which may be tabled in the house on Tuesday or Wednesday.

PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif is already in Islamabad while other leaders of the party have been directed to reach the capital to attend a parliamentary party meeting. 

The meeting will be held at the residence of Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, to be presided over by Shahbaz Sharif and addressed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. It will finalise details of the no-confidence motion, whether to be tabled against the Speaker or directly against PM Imran Khan.

Sources said all possibilities including arrests of MNAs at various pretexts were also discussed by the Opposition leadership. In case of arrests of MNAs and the Speaker not issuing production orders for them, a no-confidence motion could be tabled against Asad Qaiser first. However, the final decision will be taken in the parliamentary party meeting.

Meanwhile, PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah, Khwaja Saad Rafique and former Speaker Ayaz Sadiq were given a task to meet PTI parliamentarians, who were ready to support the opposition.

'See what I do to you after no-trust vote fails'

On Sunday, PM Imran Khan lashed out at the Opposition and warned them that he will go after them after their failure to remove him through the no-trust move.

Addressing a public gathering in Mailsi, the prime minister had said that he joined politics some 25 years ago to confront these corrupt elements and he would continue to face them. 

He had said that he was fully prepared to tackle the moves made by a ‘bunch of thieves'.

Enraged, Khan used derogatory nicknames for his rivals. The prime minister also challenged them to introduce the no-confidence motion in the parliament, declaring that after its failure, they would have to face the consequences.

The prime minister had said the people behind the no-confidence move were Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari and Maulana Fazlur Rehman. 

"The Supreme Court had convicted Nawaz Sharif and now he was an absconder sitting abroad. He went abroad with his ‘Bollywood acting’ while making requests to the government on his health issues. Whether a timid person can be a leader who had fled the country twice?”

He had said the thrice-elected prime minister of the country had been living in a luxurious and palatial house in the UK and when he was asked to explain the sources of his ill-gotten wealth and properties, he disowned them, telling that these belonged to his children who were not citizens of Pakistan.