Daily Times

Amid the ongoing war of words between the government and opposition following the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the federal ministers Saturday tried to lower the temperature, suggesting for a ‘dialogue’, a private TV channel reported.

In a statement, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry suggested the opposition hold talks for the sake of democracy in the country. He said that the ill-planned no-confidence motion of the opposition stirred up bitterness in politics. “Democracy is not a system of extreme divisions but based on political consensus. It is not difficult to fight, but reconciliation is difficult later.” He said politics should not be so divisive that it should become difficult to talk with each other.

Separately, speaking to journalists in Quetta, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said that the government and opposition should move towards ‘reconciliation’, adding that everybody should sit together and find a solution. “The opposition should show patience and tolerance,” he said, following the uproar that stirred after Imran Khan’s hard-hitting speech in Lower Dir.

The interior minister said that the government and PM Imran Khan will complete their five-year tenure as the opposition will face defeat in the no-confidence motion. He further suggested that with only a year left in general elections, the opposition should prepare for the next elections or else ‘they would have to wait for 10-years’.

Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Saturday said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has finalised its strategy to deal with the ‘no confidence motion’ and will disclose it on time. Talking to a private TV channel, he said the opposition was just playing ‘no confidence’ game just to protect their vested interest, they are only wasting government time to drag attention on other matters.

He said the no-confidence motion day will be remarkable when all coalition groups will be standing and supporting openly the incumbent government. He said there was no truth in the major change occurring in the Punjab province but unfortunately all speculations were circulating on media outlets.

Asad Umer said that Prime Minister was the only authority to take any decision about any political change in the province, adding that Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam(PML-Q) has not put any condition on the government about the replacement of the Punjab Chief Minister.

On Friday, addressing a public gathering in Lower Dir at Balambat Ground in Timargara, Imran Khan had slammed the bigwigs of the opposition – PPP, PML-N and JUI-F – for challenging the PTI-led government.

After the PM’s loaded speech, PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif addressed a press conference telling him [Imran Khan] to “keep his fight political.” While referring to the Parliament Lodges incident, Rasheed said that if the government wants, they can summon the army; however, things are still in our hands. Reiterating his stance on holding dialogues, he said: “We need to think about reconciliation as the opposition will eventually lose.”