PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan says the current political system has lost public trust and urges constitutional consensus to resolve Pakistan’s ongoing political crisis.
Rawalpindi, Pakistan – Web Desk:
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said on Tuesday that the country’s current political system had lost public trust, arguing that a “reset” had become inevitable and calling for a constitutional solution to the ongoing political crisis.
Speaking to reporters outside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Gohar said the government had lost its moral, constitutional, legal and democratic legitimacy. He referred to recent remarks by leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a key coalition partner, who alleged that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had been “elected through rigging.”
Gohar said that although PTI also considers the PPP to have emerged from rigged elections, the prime minister should have immediately sought a vote of confidence following the ally’s statement. He argued that the prime minister’s silence indicated a loss of confidence and claimed that the government’s structure had “practically collapsed.”
The PTI chairman’s remarks come amid a wider political debate triggered by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who recently said the existing system had collapsed and suggested Pakistan should move toward new administrative units or provinces to address governance challenges.
Naqvi’s proposal has received little backing from coalition partners or senior cabinet members. The PPP rejected the proposal outright, while Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Prime Minister’s Adviser Rana Sanaullah also distanced themselves from the remarks. Sanaullah said Naqvi’s comments made “no sense,” while Asif described him as the “most powerful minister” in the cabinet and remarked that he was not answerable to the prime minister on several matters.
Gohar said that rather than creating additional governments under the existing circumstances, the public should be allowed to decide the country’s future through a fresh mandate.
He added that the Constitution provides a mechanism for a vote of no confidence and said PTI would consult its political allies on available constitutional options. He also called for broad political consensus in the national interest to resolve the country’s political crisis.
The PTI chairman further urged Parliament to make meaningful progress on longstanding public demands from the provinces. While stressing there should be no disagreement over the need for systemic reform, he questioned who had pushed the country’s governance structure into what he described as its current “default mode.”
