PESHAWAR: The opposition in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Tuesday submitted a no-confidence motion against KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to stop assembly dissolution in case the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) makes an attempt to do so.

Speaking to Dawn, opposition leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman said they had Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) on board as well as the support of 46 members

Rehman said the motion had been submitted in order to save the KP Assembly.

The motion has been forwarded to KP speaker Asad Qaiser, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan to convene a session.

The move has been taken as a legal means to stop the dissolution of the KP assembly by the chief executive if the political crisis in the country worsens.

At present, in the 124 member KP Assembly, PTI has 56 seats, Jamaat-i-Islami eight, Awami Jamhori Ittehad five, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam – Fazl (JUI-F) 17 each, Pakistan Peoples Party and Awami National Party five each and Qaumi Wattan Party (QWP) has 10 seats. Whereas, elections are still to be held for a D I Khan seat.

The PTI’s government in KP was formed through a coalition with JI and AWI with a total of 69 seats. If the JI parts from the coalition and joins the opposition, the PTI-led coalition will be left with 61 seats whereas opposition parties would have 62 seats, one more than the government.

In this case, 62 votes are required to both save and oust Khattak.

At the same time, at least 15 PTI MPAs allegedly have serious differences with the chief minister. However, Ziaullah Bangash told Dawn that rumours about possible desertions from the party were baseless.

“We are with the party leadership and will follow the instructions of the chief minister,” Bangash said.

The move to submit the no-confidence motion comes a day after parliamentarians from the PTI — apart from the ones sitting in the KP assembly — handed in their resignations to their party head.

Know more: PTI to resign from all assemblies — except KP: Shah Mehmood Qureshi

This announcement came just a day after Imran stunned the country by announcing that he will storm the ‘red zone’.

Explore: JI vows to save KP govt, opposition mulls no-confidence motion

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