LARKANA: Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that his party will pay Imran Khan in the same coin and if he tries to gather one million people in Islamabad PPP can assemble two million on the day.

Khuhro said at a press conference at Larkana Press Club on Sunday that speaker of National Assembly had acted unconstitutionally by convening session on March 25.

The opposition had submitted requisition on March 8 after which he was to convene the session within 14 days but if voting on no-confidence motion was not carried out on the date and attempt was made to impose governor’s rule in Sindh, it would prove disastrous, he warned.

He said the speaker could not prorogue the session without going ahead with no-trust motion the day the session was convened. By holding the session late, the prime minister had attempted to make the speaker a scapegoat, he said.

He dismissed claims of international conspiracy behind the no-confidence move and said that parliament itself was all powerful to decide about the fate of its prime minister.

Khuhro said that certain PTI members were served with notices for merely not attending the party session and said they could not be disqualified before exercising their vote in favour of opposition’s move.

He said the government had adopted the strategy to hold public meeting on the day of the no-trust vote to threaten their members with the presence of charged crowd before whom they would have to walk to the assembly and return. It spoke volumes that PTI was short of required numbers, he said.

About possible PPP-MQM alliance, Khuhro argued that PPP had forged alliance with the party in 1988 and 2008 as well and it made no difference if it did it again. However, PPP had reservations over MQM’s stand on integrity of Sindh and demand for new province, he said.

Reservations over implementation on 40:60 formula in jobs and resources would be sorted out, he said and challenged ruling party to impose governor’s rule in Sindh. It was a mere ‘dream’ after the 18th Amendment, he said.

He spoke about fissures in the PTI and claimed that currently there were four groups in the party while its allies had taken a clear stand over no-confidence motion.

He said in a sarcastic tone it was all right when members were brought on planes in 2018 election, but the same were now being branded ‘turncoats’ and traitors’ when they were not ready to stand by Imran Khan.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2022