The Pakistan Parliament’s key session to vote on a no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan commenced on Saturday afternoon after Speaker Asad Qaiser urged that the so-called “foreign conspiracy” against the government should be discussed.
Khan was not present in the House at any point during the proceedings.
The no-confidence motion against Khan is expected to be put to a vote sometime after 8 p.m. PST, according to Pakistani media reports, following an informal agreement between the ruling and opposition parties in the National Assembly.
According to reports, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is attempting to drag the issue out without a vote by rallying supporters outside Parliament. The Supreme Court, on the other hand, stated in its order that the National Assembly’s session on Saturday cannot be adjourned until the vote of no confidence is held.
The Supreme Court restored the dissolved Parliament on Thursday and ordered a session to be held on April 9 to perform a trust vote against the premier.
The National Assembly’s session began at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday, in accordance with a landmark Supreme Court order (11.00 IST).
Shehbaz Sharif, the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and a senior PML-N leader, took the floor and hailed Thursday as a watershed moment in Pakistan’s history, saying that the Supreme Court’s judgement had made the country’s future “bright.”
He urged Speaker Qaiser to follow the court’s orders, claiming that Parliament will be creating history today. He stated, “Today, Parliament will defeat a’selected prime minister’ in a constitutional manner.”
Sharif urged the Speaker to put the past behind him and stand up for the law and the Constitution, pushing him to do his part and have his name “written in gold letters” in history.
The Speaker assured Sharif that the hearings would be conducted in accordance with the law and the Constitution. “The essential thing is that there has been speculation about an international plot. This should be debated as well “As the hall reverberated with protests from the Opposition benches, he remarked.
This caused Sharif to warn Qaiser that if he followed that path, he would be breaking the court’s orders. He also read the Supreme Court’s instructions for convening the session.
“The Supreme Court’s directives will be obeyed in letter and spirit,” Qaiser said, giving the floor to foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who said the Opposition had the right to file a no-trust motion against the prime minister, but that it was his responsibility to defend him.
“As the prime minister stated yesterday, he is upset but accepts the court’s ruling,” Qureshi added, referring to Khan’s Friday night address to the country.
After minor disruptions between the Treasury and Opposition benches, Qaisar delayed the session till 12.30 PM (13:00 IST), however the break was extended.
The session has been purposefully delayed, according to Geo News, and the PTI ministers will attempt to make their speeches longer.
Meanwhile, after the session was adjourned due to disturbance in Parliament, a group of Pakistani opposition leaders met with Qaiser in his chamber and urged speedy vote on the no-confidence motion that might cement Khan’s fate.
To depose Prime Minister Khan, the Opposition parties will require 172 votes out of 342 in the House of Commons. With the help of some ruling coalition allies, they have gathered the support of 176 members. This figure doesn’t include rebels from the PTI of the 69-year-old cricketer-turned-politician.
The Chenab Times News Desk