Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has lost a no-confidence vote in parliament after a dramatic week in which he violated the constitution in an attempt to stop the move going ahead.
Khan, the former premier cricketer turned pious Islamist politician, has been fighting for his political life for weeks, after losing his parliamentary majority.
On Thursday, he was delivered a blow after Pakistan’s supreme court found he had broken the law by dissolving parliament in an attempt to prevent a no-confidence vote he was expected to lose from going ahead last week.
On the court’s instructions, the vote finally took place on late Saturday night, though not before Khan’s party spent a 14 tumultuous hours trying to delay and block it in the national assembly.
The parliament’s lower house will meet on Monday to vote for a new prime minister, it was announced later on Saturday.
The opposition had accused Khan of trying to hold the constitution and government “hostage” and of treason after his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, attempted various means, including filibustering and legal petitions, to try to stop the vote.
The opposition stated that Khan was refusing to let the vote go ahead unless he could secure a guarantee that neither he nor his cabinet ministers would face criminal cases once they stepped down. During his time in power, Khan had jailed several opposition party figures.
(The Guardian)