File photo of P.M. Imran Khan
In televised address after dismissal of no-confidence vote, prime minister calls for early elections
Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a brief televised address to the nation, on Sunday announced that he had advised President Arif Alvi to dissolve Parliament and call for early elections.
His announcement came within minutes of National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, who was chairing today’s session in place of Speaker Asad Qaiser, dismissed the opposition’s no-confidence motion against Khan after declaring it in violation of Article 5 of the Constitution.
“I want to congratulate the nation that the NA speaker has rejected a regime change that was being imposed on the nation through a foreign agenda,” Khan said in his speech. “I have advised the president to dissolve the assemblies,” he said, reiterating his allegations of the opposition having “wasted its money” to buy the loyalties of PTI dissenters, as that would now all have gone to waste.
Urging the public to prepare for early polls, he said it was now up to them to decide who the next government should be. “The work to form the caretaker government [prior to elections] begins from today,” he added.
Earlier, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri dismissed the no-trust move against Prime Minister Imran Khan, declaring it in violation of Article 5 of the Constitution. Chairing the session after opposition parties had filed a no-confidence motion against Speaker Asad Qaiser, Suri commenced the much-anticipated session with Question Hour and gave the floor to Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain—who also holds the additional charge of Minister of Law.
In his address, Fawad said that loyalty to the state was the basic duty of every citizen under Article 5 of the Constitution. Reiterating the premier’s earlier claims that a foreign conspiracy was behind the move to oust the government, he summarized the contents of a diplomatic cable that Khan alleges has the U.S. instigating regime change in Pakistan.
“We were told that relations with Pakistan were dependent on the success of the no-confidence motion. We were told that if the motion fails, then the upcoming path for Pakistan would be very difficult. This is an operation for a regime change by a foreign government,” Fawad alleged and questioned how this could be allowed and called on the deputy speaker to decide the constitutionality of the no-trust move.
In response, Suri said the no-confidence motion was in violation of Article 5 and dismissed the motion and prorogued the session.
Prior to the commencement of the session, opposition lawmakers had appeared confident of the success of the no-trust move. They needed the support of at least 172 lawmakers from a total of 342 to oust the premier through the no-trust move and had claimed to enjoy the support of 174 members without any dissident members of the PTI included in that number.
Addressing media after the session, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said the opposition would stage a sit-in at the National Assembly against the deputy speaker’s decision and would approach the Supreme Court for an urgent ruling on the “constitutional crisis.”
Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, in a subsequent interview with Geo News, described Suri’s actions as a blatant constitutional violation. “We appeal to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of this; country has entered constitutional crisis,” he said, adding that a full bench must render judgment on this matter to avoid a serious threat to country. “Our lawyers are already approaching the Supreme Court to submit petition,” he added.