Muhammad Asad
ISLAMABAD: Opposition is reintroducing the politics of Changa Manga, while the forthcoming vote of no-confidence is another example of horse-trading, biding on the parliamentarians and acquiring their loyalties against their party. It was claimed by the Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain flanked by Federal Minister for Energy, Hammad Azhar during a news briefing in Islamabad on Wednesday.
Fawad was of the view that government will not let the opposition succeed and Prime Minister Imran Khan is the major hurdle in the trading business of the opposition. Fawad said that Nawaz Sharif and Zardari introduced horse-trading in the politics while Maulana Fazl-Ur-Rehman joined them during the 90s and laid the foundation of politics of diesel permits in the country.
While commenting on PPP’s Awami Long March, Fawad said that the people of Punjab had rejected the PPP’s long March while PPP is running short of candidates for party tickets in Punjab.
Information Minister accused PPP of using government resources for transportation of long March participants to Islamabad as well as for party publicity campaign in Karachi and Hyderabad.
Fawad lamented the opposition for its narrow sightedness, which is going to plunge the country into a political crisis at the movement when the whole world is destabilized through a serious financial and political crisis due to the Ukrainian war.
Information Minister claimed that currently, the government secures majority by 179 votes in the National Assembly which would reach 184 after the inclusion of 5 more members, however, he refused to provide details about the additional five votes.
Fawad challenged the opposition to show 172 votes to the media to validate their claim and demanded Speaker National Assembly to convene a session of the assembly to proceed on a no-confidence motion.
Fawad further claimed that the opposition had offered ten hundred thousand rupees to a female parliamentarian from the treasury, while earlier three PTI members had informed the party about the opposition’s bid to them.
Fawad said that the government had ever tried to engage the opposition in legislation including electoral reforms and others, however now the government will not initiate any talks with the opposition and will deal with its negative maneuvers accordingly. While speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Energy, Hammad Azhar said that the ongoing political and economic crisis in the world is likely to worsen the global economy because President Biden has restricted US companies to import Russian products, while President Putin has stopped the Russian exports to western countries.
Hammad said that earlier PTI government had dealt with the economic crisis inherited by the PML-N government and then tackled the coronavirus pandemic successfully.
Hammad said that the PTI government has put the national economy on an upward trajectory and presently Pakistan was growing with a 5.5 % growth rate, hence the opposition invaded the government with political and economic conspiracies against the country.
Hammad claimed that Imran Khan will succeed in this test and would appear to be more powerful and robust. According to him, Prime Minister Imran Khan had introduced a sovereign and strategic foreign policy in the larger interest of the country and now world lessons Pakistan’s viewpoint.
While responding to a media query, Fawad said that MQM-P and PML-Q will support a strong government and the government has proved its majority in the parliament through approval of the various legislations, now the opposition has to prove its claim.
While answering another question regarding the Punjab government, Fawad said that the MPAs in the Punjab Assembly has to decide the future of the Punjab government and their leader of the treasury in the province. While responding to a media query, Fawad was of the view that NEPRA has the authority of issuing notices to media outlets on the publishing of fake/unauthentic news.
