Abbasi claims Imran trust vote aided by ‘certain quarters’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday said the vote of confidence that Prime Minister Imran Khan won was “ensured” by “certain institutions”.

Talking to reporters in Islamabad, the former prime minister conceded that “horsetrading did take place during Senate elections” but said that “limits were crossed” to secure the trust of the parliament.

Imran, he said, did not win the confidence but was handed over the vote by the institutions. “It happened to the members of the government, not the opposition,” he added.

Abbasi hinted he was considering writing a letter to Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, the chief military spokesperson, who he said had denied the military’s involvement in politics.

“We had said at the time that time will tell [whether or not it’s true]. What happened during the Senate elections and the confidence vote was complete opposite [to what he had said],” he said. “Today, the parliamentary system in the country has come to a standstill.”

On Saturday, Prime Minister Imran won the vote of confidence from the National Assembly in a special session marked by an opposition boycott of the vote and clashes between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters and opposition leaders outside the assembly building.

He secured 178 votes, against the 172 required to win confidence.

Imran volunteered to seek the MPs’ confidence after Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh lost the high-profile Senate seat election to opposition candidate Yousaf Raza Gillani.

Opposition parties insisted the Senate defeat was enough to show that Imran no longer enjoyed the confidence of the House, and the vote of confidence was unnecessary.

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