Imran Khan compares Pakistan Army with 'animals' for not backing him before trust vote

Slamming the Pakistan Army's 'neutrality' and refusal to back him and his PTI in the face of the no-confidence motion the Opposition has proposed against him, the country's Prime Minister Imran Khan said "Allah didn't allow us to be neutral as only animals are neutral".

Addressing a public gathering at the Dir Scouts ground in the Balambat area of Lower Dir district on Friday, March 10, Imran Khan also added that Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa asked him not to call Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman ‘diesel’ but went on to do it anyway.

Days after a no-confidence motion was submitted against Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, he had showered confidence in the Army being on his side. However, the Pakistani Army pulled the carpet out from under his feet and said that it doesn’t want to be dragged into politics.

In his speech, the PM also slammed the three party leaders - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party co-chair Zardari, and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) chief Rehman, who have joined forces to file a no-trust motion against him, citing the government’s inability to control inflation, which has harmed ordinary people.

Listen to PM's remarks as posted by Pakistan media:

No-confidence motion against Imran Khan

On Tuesday, the Pakistan Opposition submitted a no-trust motion against Imran Khan with the country's National Assembly secretariat. Reportedly, the document was signed by more than 100 lawmakers even as only 68 members, i.e 20% of the total House strength of 342 were required to sign the motion. As per the rules of procedure, an emergency Assembly session will have to be convened by March 22 and the vote will have to be held between March 26-30.

As Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has only 155 members in the 342-member National Assembly, the government's survival depends on the support of allies such as MQM-P (7 seats), BAP (5 seats), PML(Q) (5 seats), GDA (3 seats), AML (1 seat), JWP (1 seat) and 2 Independents.

On the other hand, the opposition has a total of 162 seats - 10 short of 172 required to topple Imran Khan's government. While the opposition is short of numbers at present, it has reached out to both PML(Q) as well as MQM-P.