GILGIT: Joint opposition in Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly on Tuesday decided to move a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid Khan, terming the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government a ‘one-man show’.

According to a joint declaration, issued by the opposition parties, an important meeting of GB lawmakers and leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Islami Tehreek Pakistan and Balawaristan National Front-Naji Group expressed disappointment over PTI government’s performance in Gilgit-Baltistan.

They decided to pursue legal and con­stitutional way to get rid of the inc­umbent government and formed a five-member parliamentary committee com­p­rising Engineer Mohammad Ism­ail (PPP), Ghulam Mohammad (PML-N), Rehmat Khaliq (JUI-F), Ayub Waz­iri (ITP) and Nawaz Khan Naji (BNF) to devise a joint strategy in this regard.

In the 33-member house, the PTI has 20 members, MWM and PML-N have three members each and PPP has four, while JUI-F, BNF-N and ITP have one member each.

Five-member parliamentary panel formed to devise a strategy to make no-trust vote successful

Interestingly, the opposition parties have 10 seats and at least 17 seats are required to form the government.

The opposition claimed that members from the MWM and PTI were in contact with the opposition parties to support the no-confidence move against CM Khan.

At the meeting, leaders of the opposition parties claimed that the ‘selected’ GB government had failed to protect basic human rights and public issues.

They said CM Khan’s incompetence, unfair distribution of development budget and non-utilisation of local government funds had brought the development process across GB to a halt.

They also accused the chief minister of creating hurdles in the way of implementation of proposed constitutional reforms. They noted that transfers and postings of government officials being made allegedly on the basis of personal like and dislike were resulting in growing frustration among officials.

The participants appreciated Pakistan Democratic Movement-allied parties for successfully ousting the PTI central government in a constitutional manner.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2022