ISLAMABAD: Following the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision of de-seating 25 dissident members belonging to the PTI, federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Friday claimed that the decision would not affect the Punjab government.
She emphasized that the decision was “only for the 25 dissident PTI members”.
“De-seating of these 25 members does not affect Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz, elections, and the Punjab government as the allied parties already have the votes of 177 members”, she added.
The information minister criticized the PTI and said that the party Chairman Imran Khan was earlier hurling abuses at the commission and was asking his followers to attack its office, but now — after receiving a decision in his party’s favor — he is all praises for the ECP.
Berating the former, PTI-led government, the PML-N leader said that “these are the people who want to cling on to power no matter how much they hurt the country’s situation”.
Aurangzeb further said that the dissident members are those who showed a lack of confidence in their party’s decision and decided to vote for someone else, adding that the PTI’s defecting parliamentarians voted against Khan publicly.
The information minister went on to say that these members are eligible to cast their votes for the no-confidence motion. “They knew about the consequences and voted against their party and in favor of the nation,” she said.
She added that those 25 members have not been de-seated but their action is akin to a slap on Khan’s face. “They have the right to challenge the ECP’s decision,” said the information minister.
Criticizing the Imran Khan-led government, the PML-N leader further maintained that it “looted the nation for four years and benefitted the cartels and mafias.
