D-day for Pakistan PM Imran Khan, to face no-trust vote today

A session of the lower house of Pakistan parliament has been called for 11:00 am IST and the no-confidence vote against Imran Khan, brought by the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, is the fourth point on the agenda.

New Delhi: Pakistan's parliament will convene on Saturday (April 9, 2022) to vote on Imran Khan as prime minister. A session of the lower house of parliament has been called for 11:00 am IST, the speaker's office said in an order paper.

The vote, brought by the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, is the fourth point on the agenda.

This comes after a five-member bench headed by Pakistan Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday unanimously struck down the deputy speaker's ruling on the rejection of the no-confidence motion against Khan and ordered the restoration of the National Assembly, saying that the prime minister's move to dissolve Parliament and call early elections was "unconstitutional".

Earlier on Friday, Khan said that he would not recognise an opposition government if it succeeded in an attempt to oust him.

"I will not accept an imported government," the 69-year-old said in a late-night address, suggesting the move to oust him was part of a foreign conspiracy and calling for peaceful protests on Sunday.

"I`m ready for a struggle," he said. 

Khan, notably, has accused the United States of supporting a plot to oust him. Washington, however, has dismissed the accusation.

If the former cricket star, who took office in 2018, loses the no-confidence vote, the opposition will put forward a candidate for prime minister. Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said after the court ruling that the opposition had nominated him to take over should Khan be ousted.

The opposition parties need 172 members in the 342-member house to orchestrate the downfall of Prime Minister Khan and already they showed the support of more than the needed strength.

No Pakistani prime minister has ever completed a full five-year term in office.

Meanwhile, the opposition has said that it wants early elections but only after delivering Khan a political defeat and passing legislation that it says is needed to ensure the next polls are free and fair. The election commission has said that the earliest it can hold elections is in October.

(With agency inputs)