Pak PM Shehbaz to face majority test? Imran Khan's shocking claim

LAHORE: Pakistan's ousted prime minister Imran Khan has said President Dr Arif Alvi will soon ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to obtain a vote of confidence.

"Shehbaz Sharif tested us in Punjab and now it's his turn to prove whether he enjoys a majority in the National Assembly or not," Mr Khan made these remarks in a media talk in Lahore and also in an interview on Hum News TV on Saturday evening.

"In the first, Shehbaz will be tested for a trust vote... and later we have other plans for him," the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said, citing differences in the federal coalition as the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) threatened to quit over the issue of local body polls in Karachi and Hyderabad.

It is pertinent to mention that Dr Alvi belongs to Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the federal coalition is surviving on a very thin majority. MQM-P has seven members in the National Assembly, if it decides to quit, the Shehbaz government cannot survive.

Punjab Governor Baligur Rehman of PML-N had sought a vote of confidence from PTI-PMLQ's Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi which he obtained and sent advice on Thursday to the former for dissolution of the Punjab Assembly. The assembly stood dissolved on Saturday evening.

Mr Khan wants the federal government to announce snap polls and for this purpose he said he sacrificed his two governments - Punjab and Kyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mr Khan was ousted from power in April last year through a vote of no confidence.