Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Sunday admitted that the no-trust move against the government was a difficult task and that he could not guarantee its success.

He said this while addressing a press conference at the residence of Nadeem Afzal Chan who rejoined the PPP.

Bilawal, however, said even if the opposition’s no-confidence vote failed, he will continue his struggle against what he called the puppet regime. He said no- confidence motion was an uphill task but it was a risk worth taking, says a news report.

Bilawal said waiting for guarantees meant leaving the people at mercy of “this tyrant and unjust regime”.

In a veiled criticism of the PDM’s decision of long march on Islamabad and present en-masse resignations, he said no-confidence motion was the only means to bring the PTI government under pressure. He said they had from the day one proposed a two-pronged strategy of not only fighting it out in parliament, but also taking it to the streets to allow people to express their sentiments against the government.

Bilawal said they could bring a no-confidence motion in aid of those from treasury benches, who had assured their support to all the three political parties in the opposition camp but despite that he did not guarantee any success. However, he added, if they had support of the coalition partners, their chances of success in that case were a “near certainty”.

He said in politics, every vote was important, and politicians try to secure as many votes prior to election as possible. Furthermore, he also indicated that it was important to consider bringing the no-confidence motion against both the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and Prime Minister Imran Khan. He said PDM chief Fazlur Rehman, Asif Ali Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif will soon hold a meeting to decide on the timeline of no-confidence vote.

Asked about neutrality of the establishment, he said the establishment had never been neutral; however, in the coming few days, they will get to know if the establishment had actually become neutral or not. He said if the opposition managed to succeed in the no-confidence motion, they will term the establishment neutral, and if it failed, then the establishment will be blamed for their continued support for the PTI regime.

To a question about the history of no-confidence motion’s failures, including the one moved against his late mother Benazir Bhutto, he said the no-confidence motion moved against his mother was undemocratic, while this time around their move was very much democratic. To another question of PML-N’s accusation that he was the selectors’ new choice, Bilawal said to his knowledge, they had not said such a thing. However, when pressed further by the reporter, he said, “Don’t try to pitch the opposition parties against each other, as all the opposition parties were out for a noble cause”.

He said every political party could be termed ‘selected’ – a euphuism for being nurtured and supported by the establishment – and their history stands as testament to that, but only his party could not be blamed for being selected. He said they had defeated the PTI before during the Senate election in the National Assembly and they will surely do it again during the no-confidence motion. The PPP chairman reiterated that PM Imran should either resign or dissolve his assemblies and if he did not do so, then they will launch a “constitutional attack” on him upon reaching Islamabad.

Bilawal further said he had been listening to Imran Khan’s statements for the last three years and observed that he was addicted to taking U-turns while the PPP had always been consistent in its stand.

“PPP’s stance from the day one has been to counter Imran Khan on both the fronts, that is the people and the parliament,” Bilawal said, adding that the majority that constituted the PTI-led government was not an organic majority. He said it was an inorganic majority that had been enforced upon the country.