'Beginning of the end' has started for Imran Khan's govt: Bilawal Bhutto

A day after ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's suffered a serious blow in the Senate election, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the "beginning of the end" has started for the incumbent Imran Khan's puppet' government and it was "too late" for anyone to attempt to save it.

Zardari was addressing a press conference in Islamabad along with former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gil, who won the hotly contested Senate general seat from Islamabad to defeat PTI's Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Wednesday.

"Now this puppet spectacle won't continue, now this drama won't continue, [Prime Minister] Imran Khan will have to correct his behaviour. It is well and truly the beginning of the end and now no one can save this government," Dawn quoted Bilawal as saying.

"As far as the PPP is concerned, we accepted [Prime Minister] Imran Khan's challenge that if we won these seats, then he would dissolve the assemblies, the National Assembly and announce new elections," said Bilawal.

Bilawal remarks come after Khan's party suffered defeat on a key seat in the country's Senate elections.

In a close vote, Gil of the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) defeated Shaikh, who currently serves as the country's finance minister, by 169 to 164 votes, according to unofficial results.

The result came as a blow to Khan's PTI as his party and its allies control the National Assembly, and the implication is that some members or allies may have defected when they voted by secret ballot.

A session of the National Assembly has been summoned for Saturday where Prime Minister Khan will seek a vote of confidence from the parliament.

Bilawal claimed the government was now running away from the challenge to dissolve the assemblies and that the announcement of the vote of confidence was a "new drama".

According to Bilawal, the prime minister was a "coward and fears the elections because he fears the people".

( With inputs from ANI )