Parliament Blocks PM Khan’s Ouster

Pakistani Lawmakers Chant ‘Death to America’

Date: 03 April 2022 - 21:32

News ID: ۱۰۱۲۱۷

ISLAMABAD (Dispatches) -- For the first time in the history of Pakistan’s parliament, lawmakers chanted “Death to America” as the legislature rejected a no-confidence vote, which sought to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying “foreign powers” are interfering in the country’s democratic process.
The deputy speaker of parliament blocked an opposition no-confidence motion that Khan had widely been expected to lose.
President Arif Alvi, also of Khan’s party, approved his request to dissolve parliament and Khan called on the nation to prepare for fresh elections.
But Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, head of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, promised a sit-in at the parliament and told reporters, “We are also moving to the Supreme Court today.”
Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, the front-runner to replace Khan if he were removed, said, “There will be consequences for blatant & brazen violation of the Constitution.”
The opposition blames Khan for failing to revive the economy and crackdown on corruption. He has said that the move to oust him was orchestrated by the United States.
The opposition and analysts say Khan, an international cricket champion turned politician who rose to power in 2018 on the powerful military’s support, had fallen out with it, a charge he and the military deny.
“Army has nothing to do with the political process,” Major General Babar Iftikhar, the head of the military’s public relations wing, told Reuters in response to a question about the institution’s involvement in Sunday’s developments.
The Supreme Court is aware of Sunday’s political developments, the chief justice’s office said.
No prime minister has finished a full five-year term since Pakistan’s independence from Britain in 1947, and generals on several occasions have ruled the country, which is perennially at odds with fellow nuclear-armed neighbor India.
State Minister for Information Farrukh Habib said fresh elections would be held in 90 days, although that decision rests with the president and the election commission.
Khan’s cabinet was dissolved but he will remain prime minister, said Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said in a tweet.
Pakistan’s potential fresh instability comes as it faces high inflation, dwindling foreign reserves and widening increasing deficits. The country is in the middle of a tough International Monetary Fund bailout program.
In addition to economic crisis, Islamabad faces challenges including an attempt to balance global pressure to prod the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan to meet human rights commitments while trying to limit instability there.
Khan lost his majority in parliament after allies quit his coalition government and he suffered a spate of defections within his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
With coalition partners and some of his own lawmakers defecting earlier in the week, Khan had looked set to fall below the 172 votes needed to survive the no-confidence vote if the opposition had remained united.
Legislators from Khan’s party shouted, “A friend of America is a traitor” to Pakistan, as they gathered before the speaker’s dais. Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri announced the no-confidence motion was against the constitution.
The prime minister has said the U.S. had been conspiring against him since he visited Moscow and met with President Vladimir Putin.
On the streets of the capital Islamabad, there was a heavy police and paramilitary presence, with shipping containers used to block off roads, according to a Reuters witness.
Police were seen detaining three supporters of Khan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party outside parliament, but the streets were otherwise calm.