ISLAMABAD: Angry supporters of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Friday stormed the Sindh House building in Islamabad, sloganeering against dissident party lawmakers who have made public their intention to vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan on a no-confidence motion filed by the opposition earlier this month. 
Sindh House is an official building in Islamabad dedicated to the government of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, which is ruled by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The PPP, which has been in the opposition in the center, has denied it is using “unfair means” to buy the loyalties of lawmakers.
PTI supporters were seen carrying ‘lotas’ — round water pots used to refer to turncoats — and shouting slogans against dissident lawmakers in video clips shared online. 

In one of the clips, charged PTI supporters were seen throwing the pots at the Sindh House gate and breaking it open. The video showed a contingent of police officers trying to stop the protesters from doing further damage. 
Saeed Ghani, a key minister in the Sindh government, lashed out at Khan and said such actions only proved the prime minister was “panicking.” 
“This proves that if the MNAs were present in Parliament Lodges, PTI’s thugs would have subjected them to brutality,” he told Geo News. 
During a public rally this week, PM Khan said Islamabad’s Sindh House had become a “hub of horse-trading,” referring to reports that the opposition was bribing lawmakers from the ruling party as well as its coalition partners to vote against him on the no-confidence motion. Voting on the motion is scheduled to be held later this month. 
On Thursday, a PTI lawmaker, who criticized the prime minister and announced he would vote against him, justified his presence in Sindh House by maintaining that he had moved out of Parliament Lodges in Islamabad after a recent “police raid.” Lawmakers were afraid they would be tortured by the government for choosing to vote against the premier, he added. 
Asked about the number of dissidents at Sindh House, he said there were “about two dozens of them.” 
Ghani urged the Islamabad police to book PTI supporters, who vandalized the Sindh House gate, in a terrorism case. He accused the prime minister and the interior minister of planning the “attack,” saying the episode couldn’t have taken place without their “permission.” 
“If this persists, we will have no choice but to lay siege to their [PTI lawmakers’] houses in Karachi and pay them back in the same coin,” he warned. 
Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said he had directed the Islamabad police to arrest the protesters who had forced their way into Sindh House. 
“I strongly condemn this. We cannot allow this to happen, otherwise, the country will head into another [chaotic] direction,” Ahmed told Geo News. 
The minister said he had spoken with the Islamabad inspector-general and directed him to arrest all those involved, including the two PTI legislators who were part of the protest.