Leader of the Opposition of the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly Amjad Hussain of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Sunday announced plans to initiate a no-confidence motion against the Chief Minister of G-B Khalid Khurshid.
In conversation with the media, the opposition leader stated, “we are forming a committee to finalise our plan with PDM [Pakistan Democratic Movement] members,” referring to the PPP central executive committee meeting that requested the G-B and Azad Kashmir leadership to go ahead with no-confidence move in their respective regions.
The opposition leader further said the committee will deliberate and finalise name for the next chief minister.
Amjad Hussain had earlier said that he was in contact with ‘several’ parliamentarians of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) who had pledged their support with him against the CM, claiming he spent more than 70 per cent of his time in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, former chief minister and the regional president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Hafizur Rehman has also hinted at initiating a change within the regional government. “We will chalk out our strategy once things are settled in Islamabad,” he said.
In addition to opposition parties, the PTI government in G-B has faced resistance from within.
A disgruntled group of ministers have already formed an alliance against the chief minister accusing him of failing to strike a ‘reasonable’ deal with the federal government over the provisional constitutional status being given to G-B.
“It was a paradigm shift that came after independence but the CM played a weak wicket,” said one of the ministers.
Senior minister Abaidullah Baig, however, denied the existence of the rift.
Taking to social media, the senior minister stated that there was no truth to the allegations regarding the rift, claiming that all ministers were united under the ‘Khalid Khurshid leadership’.
Similar views were expressed by advisor Shams Lone as he accused opposition leader of spreading rumours. “I can tell you with authority that there is no such thing as no-confidence [motion] in G-B,” Lone told The Express Tribune.
He refrained from commenting when asked why he was targeting ministers when they were on the ‘same page’.
The departure of Imran Khan from the Prime Minister’s Office is believed to have eased up the no-confidence move against the chief minister of G-B.
On April 5, it was reported that the Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree of CM Khalid Khurshid had turned out to be fake, a year after he was appointed to the post.
It emerged that Khurshid had acquired his degree from a network of diploma mills operating under the brand name Belford, but it doesn’t actually exist.
He was entrusted with the top slot over his ‘outstanding educational achievements’, something even former premier Imran Khan was misled into believing as he called him a ‘right choice’ last year.
