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Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Saturday expressed the hope that disgruntled PTI leader Jahangir Tareen would refrain from taking any move bedevilling the party. "Jahangir Tareen will stand by the party and will not take any decision which harms it," said the minister while addressing the media.
The statement comes as the opposition gears up its efforts to bring in its caucus the estranged Tareen-led faction to tilt the balance in its favour and pull off its ambitious no-trust motion. On Tuesday, PML-N MPA Hamza Shehbaz confirmed the PML-N was in touch with the Tareen group, seeking the latter’s support to oust the PM Imran-led government. “We are in contact with everyone, including the Tareen group, as our sole target is removing Imran Khan,” he had said.
Reacting to the developments on Saturday, the federal minister scoffed at the attempts saying the opposition lacked both the mettle and political prowess to bring the no-trust motion against the prime minister. "Those who are trying to bring no-confidence against us do not even have the trust of their own family."
He fired a broadside at the opposition and said those who could not even manage to win in the Senate despite the majority were not in the position to defeat the government in the National Assembly. "At this stage, no change will come anywhere because nobody leaves the government if it is strong."
In Multan, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi said the opposition was a bunch of frustrated and rejected politicians who were pursuing politics of Chaos. "Repeated attempts to topple the government since 2018 have been made but the opposition remained fail," the foreign minister stated.
"If the opposition had enough votes, it would be in the government. As the opposition do not have enough votes, so it is looking towards left and right." The opposition would face failure in no-confidence motion, maintained Qureshi.
Cementing power
Responding to a question, the minister confirmed the plan of inducting state ministers into those ministries where the federal ministers were given charge of the party offices. The move to expand the cabinet is seen as a countermeasure by the PTI to keep the ruling coalition intact amid the opposition’s plans to weaken in order to overthrow the government.
According to media reports, the PTI had decided to make changes in the federal and Punjab cabinets by inducting leaders from allied parties. Five ministers of state in the ministries of defence, planning, education, energy and overseas Pakistanis would likely be inducted into the cabinet, the reports added.
The prime minister had asked Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Planning Minister Asad Umar, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar and Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood to handle party affairs and take steps to strengthen the party.
The government recently conducted an audit after which it issued a list of ten ministries that performed better than others. The ministers whose ministries were not included in the list are reportedly unhappy as they thought they were left out “despite showing outstanding performance”.
The reports said the prime minister was of the view that the new state ministers would help improve the performance of the five ministries. Leaders from its two major coalition partners — the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) —are likely to get one ministry each.
Presently, the MQM has two members in the federal cabinet — Information Technology Minister Syed Amin-ul-Haq and Law Minister Farogh Naseem. However, MQM has been saying that the law ministry has not been given to it.
While highlighting the significance of the prime minister’s upcoming visit to Russia, the minister termed it 'great and game-changer for bilateral relations of the two countries.
"It will be a great and game-changer visit, and by the grace of Allah Almighty, and now after China, Pakistan's relations with Russia are going to get further strength," he said. He said it was happening after a gap of 23 years that Russia would have invited any Pakistani leader to Moscow, which reflected Prime Minister Imran Khan high-stature and leadership qualities.
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