Senior journalist and anchorperson Hamid Mir has made a mistake while defining the history of the no-confidence motion in which he claimed that former prime minister Ibrahim Ismail (I.I.) Chundrigar was removed through a no-trust move.
Hamid Mir made a mistake while responding to a tweet of another journalist Aamir Ghauri, who said, “As Pakistan gets ready to witness another no-trust vote against a politician who is still year-and-a-half away from the end of his allotted term, a look at Pakistan’s political history is pretty educative.”
As Pakistan gets ready to witness another no-trust vote against a politician who is still year-and-a-half away from the end of his allotted term, a look at Pakistan’s political history is pretty educative… pic.twitter.com/OTzC7BQzRb
— aamir ghauri (@aamirghauri) March 9, 2022
To this, the Capital Talk host responded, “Dear Aamir, please make a correction. Prime Minister Chundrigar was removed through a vote of no confidence on December 11th 1957. Malik Feroz Khan Noon replaced him and he was removed by the first martial law within months.”
Dear Aamir, please make a correction. Prime Minister Chundrigar was removed through a vote of no confidence on December 11th 1957. Malik Feroz Khan Noon replaced him and he was removed by the first martial law within months. https://t.co/xR2zPpuice
— Hamid Mir (@HamidMirPAK) March 9, 2022
However, it was a factual mistake made by Hamid Mir which was apparently made after searching the history of no-confidence motion on Wikipedia instead of digging out facts from books and newspapers.
Here is the screenshot of Wikipedia’s information regarding I I Chundrigar:
It is the fact that no prime minister was ousted from office following a successful no-confidence motion while I I Chundrigar had resigned from office as mentioned in the set of photos shared by Aamir Ghauri.
Only two prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto late and Shaukat Aziz, had faced the no-confidence motion but they survived the moves.
No-confidence motion against PM Imran Khan
Prime Minister Imran Khan is the 22nd premier of Pakistan and the third prime minister who is facing a no-confidence motion.
The lawmakers of the opposition parties had submitted a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan to the National Assembly (NA) Secretariat on March 8 which needs the support of a minimum of 172 legislators for its success.
The no-confidence motion against the prime minister had been submitted after being signed by 86 lawmakers from the opposition parties, whereas, the opposition benches also submitted a requisition for summoning a session of the National Assembly (NA).
Ex-PM I I Chundrigar’s departure for office
One of the leading English dailies of Pakistan, Dawn Newspaper has recently published an article with its news stories related to the ouster of I I Chundrigar.
The report said that Chundrigar had resigned from office after developing serious differences with a key coalition partner over the issue of separate electorates.
The archives and copies of Dawn newspapers from December 1957 showed that I I Chundrigar left the office in 1957.
Ismail Ibrahim Chundrigar, leader of the Muslim League parliamentary party in the National Assembly, was asked by then-president Maj-Gen Iskander Mirza to form a new cabinet on October 18, 1957, following the resignation of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy as prime minister.
However, less than two months later, Mr Chundrigar submitted his resignation on the night between Dec 11 and Dec 12, which was accepted on Dec 16.
In his resignation letter to the president, which was published in the Dec 12, 1957, edition of Dawn, Chundrigar wrote, “I was called for consultations by you to help in the formation of Government. In the beginning I declined to form a coalition with the Republican Party as there was basic difference between the Muslim League Party and the Republican Party on the issue of the system of electorate.
“As you are aware, this coalition was formed on the basis of agreement on three conditions, one of which was that separate electorates will be substituted for joint electorate,” he wrote, noting that the election programme was also revised after the agreement and the cabinet approved a bill substituting separate electorates for joint electorates in the Electoral Act.
However, “the resolution passed by the Republican Party in favour of joint electorate amounts to breach of the agreement and the solemn promise given by them at the time of formation of the Government. As they have resiled from their promise, and as the basic agreement on which the coalition was formed has been broken by the Republican Party, my party can no longer continue in coalition with the Republican Party.
“I, therefore, tender my resignation from the office of the Prime Ministership, and that of my Cabinet.”