News Desk :
Imran Khan was ousted from his position as prime minister of Pakistan after 174 legislators voted against him in a no-confidence motion early on Sunday morning.
No prime minister has ever served a full term in Pakistan, but Khan is the first to lose office via a vote of no-confidence.
The vote came after the speaker of the house resigned, saying he could not oversee the ouster of his close ally of 30 years, and after Khan’s own lawmakers delayed the vote all Saturday, only allowing voting close to midnight. Before discussion of the vote began, all of Khan’s allies walked out of the chamber.
The Supreme Court had ordered the vote to take place no later than Saturday, after it dismissed as unconstitutional an earlier attempt by Khan to dissolve the parliament in an effort to forestall the vote.
Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician took charge as the country’s 19th prime minister in August 2018. His centre-right Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party promised a “new” Pakistan, assuring supporters to fight corruption, bolster the crippling economy and pursue an independent foreign policy.
But, critics say, he failed to keep his promises, and the opposition gained momentum to bring down his government.
Still, many see him as a saviour of the common man in the roles of a cricketer, philanthropist and politician.
Born in 1952 in the northeastern city of Lahore, he won the only 50-over cricket World Cup for Pakistan in 1992, making him a hero to the young generation of Pakistan at the time.
Four years later, Khan joined politics.
Meanwhile, Shehbaz Sharif, who is the PML-N president and younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on Sunday filed his nomination for the PM’s post ahead of prime minister’s election scheduled on Monday. Taking to Twitter, Sharif wrote, “Special thanks to media, civil society, lawyers, my Quaid Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, Bilawal Bhutto, Khalid Maqbool, Khalid Magsi, Mosin Dawar, Ali Wazir, Amir Haider Hoti & leaders & workers of all political parties for standing up for the Constitution!”
In his first comment after losing the no-trust vote, ousted PM Imran Khan on Sunday tweeted, “Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy.”
On the other hand, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party has nominated Shah Mahmood Qureshi as their candidate. The National Assembly is likely to elect the new prime minister on Monday afternoon.
The NA Secretariat had initially announced that 2pm would be the deadline for submitting the nomination papers for the election of the prime minister and the leader of the house while the scrutiny process would begin at 3pm.
Earlier, the secretariat had issued a statement delaying the timing but later took it back after the opposition opposed it. According to the secretariat, the PTI had requested to delay the timings.
