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ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Monday easily won the mandatory vote of confidence in the National Assembly after making more inroads in opposition, which accused him of continuing horse-trading to force side-switching by members.
As many as 188 from 331 existing members of the 342-seat House voted for Mr Jamali. The resolution for the vote of confidence was presented by PML parliamentary leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain which was seconded by Syed Safwanullah of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Hamid Nasir Chattha (PML-J), Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao (PPP-Sherpao), PPPP-Patriot president Rao Sikandar Iqbal and others.
The special one-day session gave Mr Jamali 16 more votes than the 172 he had secured last month to become prime minister with a single vote majority.
Although party affiliations of all the new turncoats were not immediately known, parliamentary sources said most of the new votes came from the People’s Party Parliamentarians, the largest opposition party whose originally 10 defectors, with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, had played a key role in the prime minister’s Nov 21 election when his PML-Q and other allies were far short of a simple majority.
But parliamentary sources said that even the present lead of about 45 members over opposition parties would still force Mr Jamali to a tight-rope walking as a reverse side-switching by the turncoats could bring his government down.
NIAZI’S “SURRENDER”: The session was most shocking for the PPP as the party’s prominent member from Mianwali, former minister Sher Afgan Niazi, announced his surrender to what he called the call of his conscience to vote for Mr Jamali.
Mr Niazi had not yet joined the group of PPP defectors whose strength has now swelled to more than 15, including Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Noraiz Shakoor.
Mr Niazi’s decision provoked a sharp rejoinder from PPP stalwart Aitzaz Ahsan, who said the month of December had been unlucky for Niazis as he recalled the December 1971 surrender of Pakistani forces commanded by Lt-Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi in Dhaka after a war with India.
UPROAR: Earlier, the start of the session, summoned for Mr Jamali to seek the vote of confidence within 60 days of taking office, was marked by an uproar when Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain rejected several opposition members’ calls for a debate over what had happened since the House met last.
Some members wanted to discuss the alleged horse-trading that they said was being done by the government by pressure and inducements while keeping the anti-defection clauses of the partially revived Constitution under suspension.
Mr Jamali, who denied horse-trading and justified side-switching as a “vote of conscience” which he said was allowed even in the British parliament and in the United States, was engaged in what seemed to be last-minute canvassing in the hall where members were still seated in alphabetical order of their names rather than on separate treasury and opposition benches.
The prime minister warmly hugged or shook hands with every member who came his way after he entered the hall from a rear door.
In Saudi Arabia, the prime minister is due to perform the Umra and hold talks with King Fahd.
In his speech after the confidence vote, the prime minister promised to pray even for his opponents who he said had “gone astray politically”.
