Pakistan PM seeks nation's support for defeating politics of ‘horse-trading’

Tariq Butt, Correspondent/ NNI 

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has made an impassioned appeal to the entire nation to come out and join his gathering to be held on Sunday in Islamabad to give a message that they stand against the vice of horse-trading.

In a video message on Thursday, Imran invited the nation to participate in the public gathering of March 27 and show their condemnation of the brazen horse-trading aimed at harming democracy in the country.

"I want my entire nation to come out with me on March 27 to give a loud message that we are not supporting evil and are against it,” he said in the video message.

The prime minister pointed out that a particular group has been looting and plundering this nation over the last thirty years and now they are openly using this money to purchase the conscience of the public representatives. He said this is a crime against democracy and the nation.

"A gang of thieves has been looting the country for the past 30 years and now they are openly using money to buy the conscience of the public representatives,” he said.

Imran said God Almighty also ordains in the Holy Quran to stand with the good and abhor the vice.  He said the nation should made it clear to those purchasing the conscience of parliamentarians that they are against this act so that nobody could damage the democracy through horse trading.

In a separate development, Imran has been informed that his coalition allies are now more inclined to side with the opposition in the voting on the no-confidence resolution against him and the estranged Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers also appeared uninterested in returning to its fold.

To this effect, the prime minister presided over a meeting of PTI’s political committee and the government committee, which included federal ministers Pervez Khattak and Asad Umar, briefed the forum about the latest position with regard to the government’s allies, officials said. Others present in the meeting were Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry and Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid and others.

The government committee informed the meeting that their interaction with the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and others, was not very encouraging, as they were no more interested in going along with the government in the given situation, and instead were more interested in joining the opposition camp.

The political committee reviewed the latest political situation with special reference to the opposition's no-trust motion and the upcoming session of the National Assembly and the government’s options.

The meeting was also informed that the “angry party members,” who were issued notices and asked to explain their position to the prime minister before or on March 26, also apparently were not ready to review their position. In this connection, they cited video clips of some of them while others were not interested in going public before the voting on the no-trust motion but their chances of returning to the PTI's fold were quite slim.