Daily Times

The Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid on Tuesday advised President Dr Arif Alvi to direct Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take a vote of confidence from the National Assembly.

In a letter, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ally maintained that Shehbaz’s cabinet had lost the confidence of the House by failing to pass a supplementary grant, providing requisite funds, security and support to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for general elections for Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies.

Rashid contended that the NA had lost confidence because of the incumbent leadership’s reluctance to comply with the orders, including the recent Supreme Court order to allocate and release capital from the Federal Consolidated funds for conducting elections.

The letter continued that the Cabinet made a commitment before the apex court to sort out the “artificially created” financial dearth and provide the requisite funds to the ECP however, the government “deliberately” failed to honour its commitment.

The AML leader stated that it was necessary for the government to hold a majority in the Parliament, but the premier and his Cabinet had lost confidence as well as the majority in the NA after they were unable to pass a supplementary budget.

He furthered that the procedure regarding money bills was highlighted in Article 73 of the Constitution, which states that the federal government’s consent is required for financial measures, and Article 84 which states the legislative procedure for supplementary and excess grants.

According to the letter, since PM Shehbaz could not provide the requisite funds by passing a supplementary budget, the president was urged, under Article 91(7) of the Constitution, to summon a session of the NA and obtain a vote of confidence.

Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has not decided to take the vote of confidence. The information minister said in her tweet that there was no such consultation and there was no need for it. She said that Shehbaz is the unanimous candidate of the people, party and coalition partners, and was voted to the leadership of the National Assembly (NA) on April 11, 2022.

Marriyum said that this “fabricated rumour” is not true. She also asked the media to not run news about the premier without verification. On Monday, reports had claimed that the prime minister has decided to take the vote of confidence on April 27 and consultations had been completed in this regard.