Imran Khan meets Bajwa as Pakistan army maintains neutrality over no-confidence vote

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan met Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday amid the looming no-confidence motion moved by a united opposition.

Speculations around the agenda of the meeting were rife, with local media reporting that the two might have discussed the upcoming Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit in Pakistan, the unrest in Balochistan and the upcoming no-confidence vote against Imran Khan.

“The majority of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders are waiting for the outcome of this meeting, the result of this meeting will be important amidst the ongoing political developments in the country,” Capital TV, a Pakistani media channel reported.

The Opposition parties have rallied under the banner of the Pakistan Democratic Movement to topple Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government on charges of economic mismanagement and poor foreign policy. The differences between Bajwa and Khan over the appointment of the new DG (ISI) has also not helped the latter’s cause. The meeting is being seen as an attempt by the former cricketer to get back in the good books of the Pakistan Army, which has, so far, maintained neutrality over the no-confidence vote.

The fissures between Imran Khan and the army became apparent when the PTI leader, in his profanity-laced speech on March 11, rebuffed Bajwa’s advice to not use derogatory language against Opposition leaders.

“I was just talking to Gen Bajwa and he told me not to refer to Fazl as ‘diesel’. But I am not the one who is saying that. The people have named him diesel,” Khan reportedly said referring to Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The Opposition needs 172 votes in 342-member National Assembly to unseat Khan and, with reports suggesting that a “substantial” number of PTI legislators, housed in the Sindh House in Islamabad, are widely believed to vote against their own party exercising the “conscience vote.” PTI’s Faheem Khan and Attaullah Niaz were arrested on Friday for leading a group of party workers who entered the Sindh House after breaking the gate.