LAHORE            -           Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Monday hinted at returning to the National Assembly, a move which has more to do with the anticipated trust vote to be obtained by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif from the National Assembly. Talking to journalists in Lahore, Imran Khan said that the PTI legislators could return to the National Assembly to fulfil the constitutional obligation of an anticipated caretaker set up to be installed to conduct the general elections. It may be recalled here that 123 PTI lawmakers had tendered their resignations en masse on April 11, two days after the ouster of Imran Khan as prime minister through a notrust vote. The idea behind this move was to force the government to announce snap polls. The PTI chairman said that his party had devised a strategy for the National Assembly to give sleepless nights to the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He also claimed that several PML-N MNAs were in contact with his party, but they will have to pass through a test before they are accepted in the PTI. It is quite evident that following its decision to pass the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif through the floor test, the PTI is now finding itself in a predicament as the parliamentary leader of the party’s dissident group Dr Afzal Khan Dandla may decide to vote for the prime minister in the absence of rest of the party legislators. In his capacity as the parliamentary leader of the PTI’s dissident group comprising 22 legislators, Mr Dandla is fully empowered to direct his colleagues to vote for the prime minister in the light of Supreme Court’s decision according to which it is the parliamentary leader and not the party head who makes decision in matters of voting inside the Assembly. Sources said that it was in this background that the PTI was now planning to return to the National Assembly to outnumber its rebel group to recapture the important office of parliamentary leader which has acquired great importance after the Supreme Court verdict. In this connection, the PTI chairman has called a party meeting on Tuesday (today) to chalk out a strategy to return to the Assembly. Imran Khan had announced last week that the president might ask the prime minister to seek a trust vote by next Monday without giving due consideration to the legal issues concerning the move. The MQM threat last week to quit the coalition government had prompted the PTI chief Meanwhile, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry later clarified that the party’s return was linked with its plan to oust Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. When asked if the PTI has definitively decided to return to the National Assembly, Fawad reportedly said his party ‘aims to oust Shehbaz Sharif as the prime minister”. He said the party was seeking legal opinion on how it could bind its MNAs to vote as per party policy in case of a no-trust move, and if that can be achieved without joining the assembly. “We will take the decision [to return to the NA based on the advice],” Fawad said. Fawad acknowledged that talks over a caretaker setup were also a reason to consider returning to the assembly but said that it was not a “top priority as ultimately the ECP will decide the new candidate and in all likelihood, they will decide as per the whims and wishes of the PML-N”.