Current system has ‘lost public trust’, reset now inevitable, says PTI’s Gohar

• PM should have sought confidence vote, says Gohar.
• PTI chief says party to consult allies on options.
• He says entire govt structure “practically collapsed”.

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said on Tuesday that the current system had “lost public trust” and insisted that a “reset” had become inevitable.

Speaking to reporters outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Gohar said a key government ally — leaders from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — had claimed that the prime minister was “elected through rigging”.

He added that while he also considered the PPP to have come through rigged elections, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif should have immediately sought a vote of confidence following the ally’s statement.

He said the prime minister’s silence showed that confidence had been lost, adding that the entire government structure had “practically collapsed”. According to Gohar, the government had lost its moral, constitutional, legal and democratic legitimacy.

The debate about the system’s collapse and the demand for new administrative units/provinces was sparked after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi recently said: “The system we are living under has collapsed. Problems cannot be solved through it […] If this system continues, we will still be sitting here 10 years from now discussing the same issues […] You have to move towards administrative units. Call them provinces or give them any other name.”

While the PPP has flat out rejected the idea, Naqvi’s own colleagues — including Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and PM’s adviser Rana Sanaullah — have also not shown any support for the notion.

Sanaullah said Naqvi’s comments made “no sense”, while Asif termed him the “most powerful minister” in the cabinet and remarked that he is not answerable even to the prime minister in several matters.

Meanwhile, Gohar said that instead of forming more governments under the existing circumstances, the people should be given the opportunity to decide through a fresh public mandate.

The PTI chairman said the Constitution provided a mechanism for bringing a vote of no confidence and that his party would consult its allies. He said political consensus should be reached in the national interest to resolve the ongoing political crisis.

He further said the House must make serious progress on the public demands of the provinces. While there should be no disagreement over resetting the system, he questioned who had pushed it into its current “default mode”.