By PTI
LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday said Pakistan could have responded to India after its missile landed in his country’s Punjab province but it observed restraint.
On March 9, an unarmed Indian supersonic missile entered Pakistani territory, endangering several airliners during the course of its flight before hitting a private property (cold storage) near Mian Channu, some 275-km from Lahore.
No loss of life was reported.
Speaking for the first time on the incident, Prime Minister Khan said, “We could have responded after an Indian missile fell in Mian Channu but we observed restraint.”
He was addressing a public rally in Punjab’s Hafizabad district on Sunday afternoon in the face of a no-confidence motion moved against him by the joint opposition.
Khan also talked about the country’s defence preparedness, saying “we have to make our defence and country strong.”
Earlier, Pakistan’s Foreign Office on Saturday said it was not satisfied with India’s “simplistic explanation” on the “accidental firing” of a missile that landed in Pakistan’s Punjab province and demanded a joint probe to accurately establish the facts surrounding the incident.
“Pakistan has proposed to New Delhi a joint probe into the incident to establish facts since the missile had landed into Pakistani territory,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) said and asked why India failed to inform Pakistan immediately about the “accidental launch’ of the missile and raised questions regarding the Indian safeguards against such happenings.
“Pakistan demands a joint probe to accurately establish the facts surrounding the incident,” the FO said.
India claimed that the missile was “fired accidentally’ during a routine maintenance operation because of a technical malfunction and said a ‘high-level court of enquiry’ had been ordered into the incident.
Four key coalition partners of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government have not yet decided their stance over the Opposition’s no-confidence motion against him, with one of them even “blackmailing” in return for support, giving the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party sleepless nights ahead of the crucial vote in Parliament, a media report said on Sunday.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), an important ally of the PTI at the Centre and the Punjab province, has reportedly asked Prime Minister Khan to announce Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as the replacement of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar before calling the National Assembly session to take up the Opposition’s no-trust motion, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Saturday alleged that the PML-Q was “blackmailing” the government in return for support, it said.
Criticising Ahmed, Federal Minister for Water Resources Chaudhry Moonis Elahi took to Twitter to allege that the interior minister “used to take money from the party’s elders during his student life”.
His “blackmail” remark had come during a press conference in Quetta when the PML-Q leaders, after holding a consultative meeting here on Saturday, decided to meet again on Sunday to finalise the party’s stance and strategy, the report said.
The exchange of such acrimonious remarks from both the sides clearly indicates that the gulf between the ruling PTI and the PML-Q has started widening, the report said, adding that the PML-Q also criticised Prime Minister Khan for his recent utterances.
“We condemn the prime minister’s speech. We consider it shameful and below the status of the prime minister,” said PML-Q senator Kamil Ali Agha.
Asked about the reason behind the delay in decision-making, which was adding to the country’s political uncertainty besides giving sleepless nights to the ruling party, Agha said that his party leadership always took decisions after consultations and deliberations.
In response to another question, Agha refuted media reports that Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had asked them to merge the party into the PTI to get the Chief Minister’s office of Punjab.
The PML-Q Senator ridiculed the information minister and said that they did not consider him an appropriate person to talk about such serious political matters.
Agha also hit out at the interior minister for targeting the PML-Q and said it seemed that he was in a fear of losing the ministry.
The PML-Q Senator further said that Ahmed always got the ministries in the past by “pleading” and through sycophancy.
The PML-Q has now acquired a central role in the ongoing political drama despite having only five Members of the National Assembly (MNAs), the report said.
It seems that the three other allies — the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) — are waiting for each other to make a decision, it said.
Given the party’s position in the National Assembly, it is clear that if any two of the four allies make a decision to quit the ruling coalition, Prime Minister Khan will lose the majority in the 342-member house, the report said.
As many as 17 MNAs belong to these four coalition parties or alliances and the ruling party had the support of 179 MNAs at present, it said.
Earlier, Interior Minister Ahmed said that he was standing with the prime minister like a rock but not responsible for the other allies “as even those having five members are blackmailing for chief ministership in Punjab”.
When asked whom he was calling a blackmailer, he said, “I’m talking about Punjab politics.”
He said the government had decided to deploy Rangers and Frontier Corps personnel for security of the Parliament House and Parliament Lodges seven days prior to the voting on no-confidence motion so that there would remain no complaint of law and order.
Under Article 245 of the Constitution, he said, the government could summon the army as well, nevertheless the situation had not reached that point yet.
In a separate development, the National Assembly (NA) Secretariat has declared the Opposition parties’ no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Khan legitimate, Geo News reported.
The NA Secretariat has advised Speaker Asad Qaiser to summon the session before March 22, it said.
On paper, Khan still enjoys a majority, comprising 155 members of his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and 23 from coalition partners, including five each from Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), three from Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), one each from Awami Muslim League (AML) and Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) and one independent member.
The total opposition number is 163, including 84 from PML-N, 56 PPP, 15 Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan, four Balochistan National Party (BNP), one Awami National Party (ANP) and three independent lawmakers.
The Opposition has claimed that they have the backing of 28 lawmakers of the ruling party and others from an ally of the government.
Prime Minister Khan, 69, came to power in 2018 and the next general election is scheduled to be held in 2023.
In the 342-member National Assembly, the Opposition needed the support of 172 members to oust Prime Minister Khan.
Last year, Khan received 178 votes when he sought a vote of confidence after a candidate supported by his party lost the Senate election.
The Speaker of the National Assembly is expected to call the lower house in session by March 22, while voting on the no-confidence motion must take place between March 26 and March 30, an earlier Dawn report said.
Imran Khan said on Sunday that he did not join politics to check the prices of ‘aloo and tamatar’, as he attacked the Opposition parties for tabling a no confidence motion against him in Parliament, accusing him for mismanaging the economy amidst spiralling inflation.
Addressing a political rally in Hafizabad city in Punjab province, Khan said the nation would stand against elements trying to topple his government through “buying the conscience of the [lawmakers] using money”.
He said Pakistan was going to become a great country in the remainder of his term, adding that the incentives announced by his government would yield results soon.
The 69-year-old cricketer-turned-politician said that 25 years ago, he decided to join politics for the sake of the country’s youth, adding that he had no personal gains from doing so as he already had everything in life that a person could dream of.
“I didn’t join politics to know the prices of ‘aloo and tamatar’ (potatoes and tomatoes).
I joined it for the sake of the country’s youth”, Khan, also chairman of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, said.
“If we want to become a great nation, we will have to support the truth, and this is what I have been preaching for the last 25 years,” Khan said.
Pakistan’s general inflation measured by Consumer Price Index (CPI) clocked in at 24-month peak of 13 per cent in January as prices of almost all commodities and utilities maintained a growing trend.
The sectors that posted double-digit growth in prices when compared to the same month of last year included perishable and non-perishable food items, energy, transportation, clothing and health, the Dawn newspaper reported last month.
This is the highest CPI inflation since January 2020 when it was 14.6 per cent, it said.
Khan’s speech came days after the united opposition front submitted a no-confidence motion against him while pinning its hopes for the success of the motion on the estranged members of the ruling party and its allies.
The key leaders of the Opposition parties will meet on Monday at the residence of the Leader of Opposition in National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif to hold a consultative huddle to chalk out an effective strategy to make its no-confidence motion successful.
Khan also said it was the responsibility of the state and judiciary to stop the “corrupt” and “convicted” politicians who were trying to “topple the state” through horse-trading.
He said the people will see that those trying to dislodge him from the top office would get buried under the weight of their own conspiracy.
In his speech, Khan criticised Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari for maintaining silence on US drone strikes in Pakistan between 2008 and 2018, saying those leaders never spoke for the rights of Pakistan.
In the 342-member National Assembly, the Opposition needs 272 votes to remove the prime minister.
Prime Minister Khan came to power in 2018 and the next general election is scheduled to be held in 2023.
