• 184 NA members “strongly” support PM Imran, Chaudhry says.
• Opposition’s no-confidence motion “destined to fail”, he says.
• PM “sole challenger of these merchants of horse-trading”, he adds.

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Wednesday called on the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to convene the session of the lower house after the Opposition filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

PM Imran Khan enjoys the support of the majority of parliamentarians, and the Opposition’s no-confidence motion was “destined to fail”, Chaudhry said while addressing a press conference alongside Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar.

The information minister said around 184 members of the National Assembly “strongly” support PM Imran Khan.

Chaudhry said PML-N and PPP have been involved in horse-trading in the past, and now, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari are “taking this practice to new heights.”

The information minister said Imran Khan was the “sole challenger of these merchants of horse-trading”.

“Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari believe in politics of money and looting and stashing national wealth abroad […] they are offering millions of rupees to buy the loyalty of our members,” Chaudhry said.

Chaudhry said JUI-F and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had also gotten personal benefits from the government of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

He said Fazl has also been accepting money from foreign forces.

The information minister announced that now the government would not engage in any kind of talks with the Opposition and would “treat it like criminals.”

Speaking on the occasion, Hammad Azhar said the prime minister had put the country’s economy on the path of growth and development.

Azhar said PM Imran Khan is pursuing an independent and strategic foreign policy in the best interest of Pakistan.

Asif Zardari ‘my next target’

With the no-confidence motion submitted to the NA secretariat, PM Imran Khan announced earlier today that after winning the trust of the lower house, he would turn his gun towards former president Asif Zardari.

Addressing charged PTI workers at the Governor House in Karachi, PM Imran Khan claimed that the motion is the “political death” of the Opposition.

“I was telling my team that they (Opposition) have done what I was praying for,” said PM Imran while speaking to the party workers during his day-long visit to Karachi — which was aimed at gaining assurance from MQM-P for their support amid the no-trust motion.

“No-confidence motion is their political death,” PM Imran Khan told his workers about the Opposition.

MQM-P ‘fully supports’ PM Imran Khan’

Following the premier’s meeting with PTI ally MQM-P, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi today claimed that the party has expressed its “full support” to PM Imran Khan.

However, in the post-meeting press conference, MQM-P said that the no-trust motion was not discussed during the “10-minute” meeting.

In a bid to save his government from being toppled by the joint Opposition, PM Imran had arrived in Karachi to meet MQM-P to seek their assurance ahead of voting on the no-trust motion.

FM Qureshi told the media after the meeting that PM Imran Khan and the MQM-P leadership discussed the political situation of the country.

“MQM and PTI are allies and will continue to cooperate with each other,” said Qureshi. He added that the premier formulated and finalised his strategy with the MQM-P in his meeting.