As the government and its allied parties gathered in the National Assembly for a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Imran Khan, PTI and PML-N workers present outside the Lower House clashed with each other.
PML-N leaders including Ahsan Iqbal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Khurram Dastagir and Musadiq Malik gathered outside the Parliament House to speak to media ahead of the special session of the National Assembly. As the PML-N leaders started to speak, they were surrounded by an angry crowd, which attempted to drown them out with slogans in support of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the ruling party.
The opposition leaders criticized the prime minister, saying that he had lost the confidence of the masses, while PTI supporters chanted slogans in favour of Imran Khan. The PTI supporters carrying pro-Imran banners circled the PML-N leaders and started raising slogans loudly in an attempt to suppress their voice. The situation turned ugly when the politicians and the PTI supporters started pushing each other and exchanging hot words. TV footage showed Musaddiq Malik being hit from behind, following which him and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chased down the man who pushed them to deliver some retaliatory blows. A Peshawari chappal was thrown at Ahsan Iqbal as he stood on a platform and shouted slogans criticising the government. Security arrived later to break up the scuffles and formed a human wall, separating the protesters from the PML-N leaders.
Later, the PML-N leaders reassembled and blamed the government for the situation. The PML-N leaders alleged they were harassed and manhandled by PTI supporters present at the site, adding that there was no police or security for their protection. They alleged that PML-N leaders, including Aurangzeb, were physically manhandled by PTI supporters.
A fuming Abbasi said such behaviour was reflective of the PTI’s tactics and challenged them to a face off on the road “in front of the cameras”. He said that the PM did not have the power to go for a trust vote according to the constitution, adding that this power rested with the president only if he believed the premier had lost confidence of the legislature. “Today’s National Assembly session is illegal, unethical and unconstitutional,” said Khaqan Abbasi, adding he too will not back down.
Ahsan Iqbal said that the ‘politics of fascism’ would not be allowed and the PML-N would contest the government at every forum.
Aurangzeb also raged against the government, saying that “there is no prime minister in this country”. “They want to secure a vote of confidence through bullying and terrorism,” she said.
However, the PM’s focal person on digital media, Arslan Khalid, claimed that the PML-N leaders began the scuffle by attacking PTI supporters around them, adding that the media was “misreporting the facts”.
Following the allegations, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz lauded her party’s leaders for “fighting back against vote thieves and thugs like lions”. “It makes sense to lose your mind like this after facing humiliating defeats one after the other and from every side,” she tweeted.
