Imran Khan ousted as Pakistani PM
PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan lost power late on Saturday night, voted out by parliament in a test of strength that the Speaker had stalled all day.
The motion was taken up after Pakistan’s Supreme Court prepared to step in to enforce compliance of its April 7 order directing the holding of the vote of no-confidence, and prison vans were stationed outside the National Assembly, apparently to take away officials guilty of contempt.
Speaker Asad Qaiser and Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, both from Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party, resigned and Ayaz Sadiq of the main opposition PML-N took charge of the proceedings.
Voting on the resolution began at 11.58 pm, but the House was adjourned for four minutes to comply with rules that do not allow a session to continue past midnight, Dawn reported. The new session began at 12.02 am (past 12.30 am in India), and the process was completed an hour past midnight. A total 174 members in the 342-strong house voted in favour of the motion, Dawn reported.
Earlier, the National Assembly was adjourned four times during the day. Amid the impasse, Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa met Imran, quoting two unnamed sources.
Meanwhile, both the Pakistan Supreme Court and Islamabad High Court were expected to become active after midnight if the Supreme Court’s orders to complete the vote was not complied with.
On April 7, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial had set aside a decision by the deputy speaker to dismiss a no-trust resolution against the government, as well as the subsequent dissolution of the National Assembly by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.
The Court had restored the House and directed it to reconvene by 10.30 am on Saturday to conclude the vote of no-confidence.
Pakistani media reported that prisoner vans had drawn up outside the Assembly, and there was speculation that the Speaker and Deputy Speaker could be arrested if the vote was not held by midnight as ordered by the Supreme Court.
Security was tightened at airports, and an alert was issued saying no senior state functionary or government official would leave the country without a No Objection Certificate (NOC).
Meanwhile, Khan has thus become the first Prime Minister in Pakistan’s history to have been removed from office through a no-confidence vote which was carried out post mid-night.
The opposition, a combination of socialist, liberal and radically religious parties managed to secure the support of 174 members, two more than the required 172 in the 342-strong House to oust a sitting Prime Minister.
– INDIAN EXPRESS