Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday decided to take the party dissidents head-on as he asked the National Assembly speaker to take up the issue with the top electoral body in order to send them packing from the lower house of parliament.

A meeting of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political committee which met here with the prime minister in the chair, discussed the ongoing controversy of his party MNAs openly siding with the opposition in the upcoming no-trust motion against the premier.

The meeting which was attended by the senior party leaders discussed the dissidents alleged involvement in getting monetary benefits from the opposition, due to which, the sources said, the prime minister issued standing orders not to spare anyone involved in the shady deal of floor crossing.

Disgruntled PTI lawmakers find 'refuge' in Sindh House Islamabad

“Sindh’s taxpayers’ money is being thrown to the turncoats, which is in no way acceptable, and I will fight to the end to stop this detestable trade,” the PM was quoted as saying.

He also asked National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to consult the legal wizards of the government about sending the cases of the dissident party MNAs who are openly violating the party discipline, which is unlawful.

The PM also directed not to allow anyone to misuse government buildings – whether it is Sindh House or any other residential facility – to be turned into a horse-trading hub, well-informed sources said.

On March 14, Federal Minister Ali Zaidi had claimed that the “PPP has deployed additional SSU commandos at the building to protect the bags of ‘looted’ wealth ‘Zardari mafia’ brought to try and bribe our MNAs”.

Consensus in PTI on holding NA session on March 21

Following up on his statement, the PTI minister also wrote a letter to Secretary Establishment demanding an immediate inquiry on SSU Sindh DIG Maqsood Memon.

Sources privy to the matter said that the meeting decided to strictly monitor the lawmakers and Sindh House to ensure that no one falls prey to horse-trading.

The meeting also agreed to call the National Assembly session on March 21 and empowered the premier to take the final decision in this regard.

A legal team briefed the meeting on convening the NA session for voting on the no-trust motion against the premier.

Ahead of the voting on the no-trust motion, the meeting suggested the prime minister call in a parliamentary party meeting of the PTI to identify the dissident and “missing” lawmakers of the party.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on March 18, 2022.