Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on Thursday expressed confidence that President Pervez Musharraf would not sack his government.
"The president, who has always kept his promises in the past, has said it publicly that he will not use his powers to dismiss the government," he said after Musharraf won the vote of confidence in parliament and provincial assemblies. "Therefore, there is no question of use of this article to dissolve national assembly by the president."
"The government will make all efforts to deliver goods and come up to the expectations of people so that there is no need of using Article 58(2)(b)" of the constitution, which confers powers on the president to dissolve the national and provincial assemblies, he said.
Musharraf won 56 per cent of the 1170 votes in parliament and provincial legislatures.
Referring to the boycott by mainstream political parties, Jamali said the voting took place on expected lines "though we tried our level best to convince our friends to exercise their right in favour of the President".
Musharraf, he said, would now address parliament after the Jan 4-6 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit.