Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan lost power late on Saturday night, voted out by parliament in a test of strength that the Speaker had stalled all day.
The motion was taken up after Pakistan’s Supreme Court prepared to step in to enforce compliance of its April 7 order directing the holding of the vote of no-confidence, and prison vans were stationed outside the National Assembly, apparently to take away officials guilty of contempt.
The joint opposition – a rainbow of socialist, liberal and radically religious parties – secured the support of 174 members in the 342-member assembly, more than the needed strength of 172 to oust the Prime Minister.
Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party members had walked out of the assembly just before the vote commenced and only the opposition voted in the no-confidence motion. Imran Khan was not present in the assembly during the process and vacated the Prime Minister’s official residence minutes before he lost the vote.
After the no-trust vote was over, opposition leaders rushed to congratulate Shehbaz Sharif in the National Assembly. The PML-N chief vowed that the “new regime would not indulge in politics of revenge”.
“I don’t want to go back to bitterness of the past. We want to forget them and move forward. We will not take revenge or do injustice; we will not send people to jail for no reason, law and justice will take its course,” Shehbaz Sharif said in his speech after the voting result was announced.
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(With inputs from agencies)
