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Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to take a vote of confidence from the parliament after his finance minister, Hafeez Shaikh, lost the Senate election to the opposition’s candidate, former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
The development is significant as it opens many avenues for the opposition when it comes to weakening the government further.
Votes for the Senate, the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament, are cast by members of the National Assembly, or the lower house, and four provincial assemblies.
The fact that Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)’s candidate was able to win the capital’s only general Senate seat, despite the government’s majority in the parliament, shows not all is well in the ruling party’s ranks. With a vote of no confidence against Khan’s finance minister, the government’s own allies and party workers have sent a message to the leadership that they are not content with how the government is being run. For over a year now, the ruling party’s lawmakers have expressed reservations over Khan’s inaccessibility or lack of contact with them.