ECP is empowered to decide the reference against floor crossing
OPPOSITION parliamentary group appears to have made some head way on reaching a consensus over snap polls in case they manage to oust Prime Minister Imran khan through a no confidence move.
It confirmed the opposition parties have already reached a consensus to table no confidence motion in few days as the opposition parties are looking towards Jehangir group.
A good number of PTI MNAs, including those supporting Tareen, have agreed to shake hands with the PML-N on a promise of PML N tickets.
United Opposition Parties have claimed that they have the numbers needed to de-seat the Prime Minister and the motion of no-confidence will be filed in the National Assembly very shortly.
The government continues to put up a brave face saying its majority is intact because the allies are holding firm.
The coming week is expected to be a very crucial one.An important factor in this evolving situation is the prospects of PTI members breaking rank and voting against their leader.
For the government, this is an unthinkable outcome but the opposition continues to say that a fair number of PTI legislators are ready to cross over in return for some guarantees that include the award of PML-N tickets for the next general election.
If these PTI MNAs do jump ship, they could tilt the vote in favour of the opposition.It’s considered, they would also then trigger the disqualification clause because of floor crossing.
This eventuality has been a topic of discussion for many weeks and the optimists with the opposition maintain that they have been able to to provide some answers to these legislators.
One argument they are pending that the process of disqualification can be a long drawn out affairs.
The Speaker of National Assembly has to issue a notice and that process which entails plenty of correspondence back and forth then move to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
There too the process could drag on.In the same vein, opposition leaders are also hinting they might file a no confidence motion against Speaker National Assembly.
If they manage to succeed and replace him with some one from their ranks, then the disqualification process can become even lengthier.
These arguments are being given to incentivise PTI members to jump ship. While the opposition seems determined to move a no confidence motion against Prime Minister in the National Assembly within the next few days the government decided to partially close Parliament House next week for four days due to upcoming meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
—The writer is former Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan and currently Chairman National Democratic Foundation.
