Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leader Moonis Elahi on Saturday took a dig at Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry’s over the latter’s seat adjustment favour to the coalition partners, who are currently proving to be a litmus test for the ruling party in the no-trust vote.
“Pls check the results from the election commission. Even after seat adjustment, PTI MPA got less votes than PML-Q MNA from the same constituency. Who helped who??” Moonis said in a tweet while reacting to Fawad’s interview to Dunya News.
In the clip, Fawad while responding to a query said the government does not have the kind of allegiance with their allies as it did in the past. “But, it’s obvious the allies have come on our seat adjustment. Some of the allies were not even able to get one or two seats had we not adjusted seats with them,” he said.
The information minister added that the government would stick to “principle politics,” which was started by Prime Minister Imran Khan. He reiterated that the government was engaged with coalition partners and expressed hope for their support.
“But, we have made it clear that we won't get ourselves involved in preconditions [of allies],” he added.
Moonis, who is the federal minister for water resources, on February 14 advised the ruling party not to panic about PML-Q meeting opposition leaders. He added that it was part of their work to “welcome guests” upon their arrival at their house. “We are political people and it is part of our work to meet politicians.”
The government has claimed that it was not worried by the opposition’s no-confidence motion and its meetings with coalition partners. However, a few of the cabinet members have frowned upon the opposition leaders' meetings with coalition partners. Moreover, PTI workers on Friday stormed the Sindh House in Islamabad as a protest against those estranged lawmakers from the ruling party who are residing there ahead of the day of no-confidence, which is scheduled to take place on March 28.
SAPM on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill used abusive language for party member Ramesh Kumar, who is among the 24 lawmakers sitting in Sindh House, during a live TV show on Thursday. Calling Kumar a “corrupt person” and a “sellout,” Gill accused Kumar of selling fake cancer medicines in Punjab.
Separately, Federal ministers Pervez Khattak and Fawad Chaudhry had a telephonic conversation with Aun Chaudhry, a leader from the Jahangir Tareen group, Aaj News reported.
Aun would brief Tareen about the talks with the government ministers.