Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Hussain Chaudhry Thursday, lashing out at the opposition for its foul play to get the no-trust motion succeed, said legal proceedings had been initiated against the PTI’s “dissident” Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) under the Article 63-A of the Constitution. Addressing a press conference, he said PTI’s some members were saying that they would be voting (on the no-trust motion) in accordance with their conscious. He wanted to tell those “shameless” persons that as the people had voted for them in the name of Imran Khan, and if they had any grievances against the party leadership then they should tender resignation and contest the election again. Flanked by federal ministers Asad Umar and Hammad Azhar, he said he had hinted two days ago that action would be taken against the “dissidents”, and it was heartening that the turncoats had come out in open so quickly. The central leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), he said, was receiving phone calls from the enraged party workers belonging to the constituencies of “dissidents”. He, however, urged the workers ” not to take the law into their hands, though protest is their right.” Ironically, he claimed that a female MNA was given Rs 70 million. It was astonishing that huge sums of money were shifted in planes from Sindh where the people were even deprived of basic facilities like clean drinking water, he added. He said the Sindh House in Islamabad had become another “Changa Manga where the “conscious” of parliamentarians was being purchased by the “opposition traders” like “horses’ and mules”. “As of now, I am not certain whether they are kept in the Sindh House under any pressure or not,” he said while referring to those PTI MNAs, who have emerged before the media from the Sindh House.Fawad said the prime minister was very clear that the PTI would not resort to blackmailing, wheeling and dealing, or horse trading for saving its government as it negated the promise the party had made with the masses before the general elections that it would not pursue the traditional politics.
“Our real target is the D-Chowk, Islamabad where the biggest gathering of the country’s history will be held on March 27,” he said, adding the government would foil the no-trust motion with the public support.
Turning his guns towards Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Nawaz Sharif, he said the two had introduced the culture of corruption in politics. To a query, he said under Article 61 A (1) “if the party leader comes to the conclusion” that a legislator (elected on the party’s ticket) had left the party then he could move the reference for his / her disqualification.
He said Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid as an ally of the government had proposed to the prime minister to impose “governor rule” in Sindh as the provincial government had committed flagrant violation of the Constitution by sending provincial police, besides shifting sums of money to Islamabad. The minister said deliberations would be held on the proposal of Sheikh Rasheed who was not only the important ally of the government but also the interior minister of the country.
