PTI in position to topple federal govt: Fawad Chaudhry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Senior Vice-President Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Tuesday said if they wanted to topple the federal government tomorrow, they could do it but wanted to give the rulers a chance to decide on how to move forward.

He reiterated that first Shehbaz Sharif should give the date of elections, then they were ready to talk to him. The framework of elections had to be decided by political parties, the most important of which was the establishment of a new election commission. He said the chief election commissioner had a few days to decide whether he would go himself or the PTI would have to take action to send him home as he had left no stone unturned to reduce the dignity of himself and the institution. Fawad insisted that the CEC should resign and give political parties a chance to take a decision in this regard.

The PTI leader told a news conference here that the PTI was going to form the government in Punjab after the rulers defeat in by-polls in Punjab, following which Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had become CDA chairman only. If he went right on the motorway, Peshawar was there and if he went left, Punjab was there and the PTI government would be there at both places.

Fawad asserted that on July 22, the PTI would have a government in Punjab and on July 23, they could ban Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah from entering Punjab. Similarly, Punjab Interior Minister Ataullah Tarar could also be banned from entering the province, because the way he committed atrocities against the PTI people and arrested PTI leaders was condemnable.

“Shehbaz Gill was arrested and kept in a small cell for nine hours. He was not even given water and we saw these abuses. After Rana Sanaullah’s statement in which he had said that five people could disappear, he should be banned from entering Punjab. People like Rana Sanaullah and Ata Tarar are disease for Punjab, the people of the province want these people not to be seen there because they are a source of hatred,” he noted.

Fawad said that just as Ali Amin Gandapur was banned from entering Punjab, the ban on the entry of PMLN leaders into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could also be considered. “We have given this government a few days to decide when they have to go to the general elections, when to move with regard to the Election Commission of Pakistan and electoral reforms, we have no secret demand or agenda, even the powerful circles know our agenda which is before people.”

He said that on Monday Imran Khan had also said that the days were gone when decisions were taken in closed rooms, now the power of decisions rested with people. He said democracy followed traditions and according to democratic traditions, Hamza Shehbaz should have resigned by now. He was weakening democracy by not separating himself from the CM’s office. The PTI had ratified the nomination of Pervaiz Elahi as Punjab chief minister and wanted him to run the province now. The government, he pointed out, had not been functional in the country for the last three months. Wheat had not been procured in Punjab so far, a flour crisis was coming in December while court decisions and the ECP also had a role in the political crisis in the province.

Fawad said Rana Sanaullah had only two stages in his life: one was either being a minister or being beaten in jail. There was no other stage in his life. “The government is there only because we want to give them a chance. Otherwise, if we want, we can request the president to ask the prime minister to take a vote of confidence. In that case, Shehbaz Sharif will not be able to take a vote of confidence as he does not have a majority in the National Assembly. He does not have more than 162 MNAs in the House at present while he requires 172 members’ support to prove his majority.”

He alleged that former president Asif Zardari had never stood by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s ideology in his life, so what was he to stand with the PMLN. The PPP was currently standing on top of the political body of the PMLN. They were not going to lose anything. They were a Sindh party and wanted their government to continue in Sindh.

As regards the PTI foreign funding case, he said it was alleged that “we took funding from foreign companies while there was no such ban till 2018, this law and ban does not apply to our funding, so we have no problem with the prohibited funding case, our concerns on the ECP have nothing to do with the case”. He said that “it is our right to demand the dismissal of the chief election commissioner and it is his responsibility that all parties trust him and if he is not trusted, he should resign”.