Imran Khan fields motormouth Pakistan min amid internal Army coup talk; adds to confusion

Pakistan Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Saturday slammed the "corrupt" opposition in the country and said that it cannot do any harm to the Imran Khan-led government. He said that there exists 'no minus-one formula' but warned that there would be 'minus three in case of any minus one'.

Addressing his first press conference after recovering from Coronavirus, the minister rejected the conspiracy theories about the fall of the PTI government and said, “We are neither the last choice nor will there be any minus one. If someone thought that there will be minus one, they should know that then it would be minus three instead of minus one.” 

'Don't wash your dirty linen in public'

“Since Imran Khan is working hard to take the country out of the crisis, I would ask the PTI ministers not to wash their dirty linen in public. I can only request you (the ministers) since I believe that you are doing the job of the opposition which is doing nothing at the moment,” he was quoted as saying by Dawn.

'The others will not spare them'

Though not defined constitutionally, 'Minus one' formula in Pakistan politics means that if the establishment or army and ‘aavaam’ are unhappy with the leader, they would remove him from the top position and the next one in line will take the charge.

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Earlier this week, Imran Khan dismissed increasingly loud opposition chatter about a ‘minus one’ formula and vowed to go after “mafias and cartels” and announced that his government was now embarking upon a plan of massive institutional reforms. “They (the opposition) don’t know that even if minus one happens, the others will not spare them,” Imran said without any reference.

Pakistan's already declining economy has been hit by the Coronavirus and the Imran Khan government has been under pressure to deliver. Pakistan reported 3,387 new coronavirus cases and 68 deaths during the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases in the country to 225,283 and the death toll to 4,619, according to official figures on Saturday. 

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(With agency inputs)