Imran Khan's PTI to boycott Pakistan National Assembly session for election of new prime minister
Shah Mahmood Qureshi
The Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to boycott the voting for the election of the country’s next Prime Minister, the party’s candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced on Monday.
This decision was taken after a PTI parliamentary meeting in Islamabad earlier in the day.
Minutes into the session of the National Assembly, the former foreign minister of Pakistan appreciated Imran Khan for his nomination and said that the PTI members will be boycotting the vote as a mark of protest. The PTI lawmakers staged a walkout at the end of his speech on the floor.
After the defeat of Imran Khan in the no-confidence vote, the race to become the new Prime Minister is mainly between Qureshi and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif.
With the boycott, Shehbaz seems to be the likely candidate to win the race for the position.
Earlier, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry made it clear that all PTI lawmakers will tender their resignation from the National Assembly and none of them will have any part to play in a government which will be formed under a ‘foreign agenda’, according to a PTI report.
“The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Parliamentary Committee has decided to resign from the National Assembly. Today, all members of the Assembly are submitting their resignations to the Speaker. We will fight for freedom,” he tweeted in Urdu.
Currently, the winning candidate require the support of 172 lawmakers among the total 342 and Shehbaz Sharif is believed to hold the necessary number of votes after the no-confidence motion.