Islamabad, The Parliament of Pakistan is all set to vote on the important no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan today. Khan will probably be the first prime minister in the history of Pakistan who can be removed through a no-confidence motion.
The session of the National Assembly to vote on a no-confidence motion against Khan will begin at 10.30 am (local time) following a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The opposition parties need 172 members in the 342-member House to remove Prime Minister Khan.
Opposition parties have garnered excessive support with the help of dissidents from cricketer-turned-politician Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and some allies of the ruling coalition. According to the ‘Order of the Day’ issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Friday, the vote on the no-confidence motion is fourth in the six-point agenda of the National Assembly (NA), the lower house of parliament. The ruling PTI party led by Khan (69) has resolved to make things as difficult as possible for the opposition, be it disrupting the voting process or opposition candidate Shahbaz Sharif, reported Dawn newspaper. preventing him from becoming the new leader of the house.
According to Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, the government will present the “threatening” message or its contents in Parliament and ask the Speaker of the House for a debate on the issue. Speaking to ‘ARY News’ on Friday night, Chowdhury said, “I think even though the no-confidence motion is on the agenda of the National Assembly, there is no possibility of voting on Saturday.” The news quoted Choudhary as saying that the Supreme Court had directed the conduct of voting in the session called on Saturday, which does not mean that it will be held on the same date.
Khan spoke of a “threatening letter” in recent weeks, claiming it was part of a foreign conspiracy to remove him because it was not acceptable to countries that followed an independent foreign policy. He said that he very much wished that people could see the letter but he refused to share it because of national security. However, he shared the essence of it. In his address to the nation on Friday night, Khan reiterated his allegations that a US diplomat had threatened regime change in Pakistan.
A five-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Omar Ata Bandiyal on Thursday mutually agreed in a landmark judgment that National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s decision to dismiss the no-confidence motion against Khan was “against the Constitution”. . The top court declared Prime Minister Khan’s advice to President Arif Alvi to dissolve the National Assembly as “unconstitutional” and ordered the Speaker of the lower house to convene a session on Saturday to vote on the no-confidence motion. Notably, no Pakistani prime minister has completed his five-year term.
Meanwhile, the opposition has completed its preliminary talks to form a new government in the wake of Prime Minister Khan’s ouster. The Express Tribune newspaper reported on Friday that plans are underway to remove President Alvi and return ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif from Britain. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif, 70, who is the opposition candidate for the new prime minister, will announce his likely government priorities after being sworn in. All opposition parties will be given proportional representation in the new potential federal government.