PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s National Assembly proceedings were adjourned in the early hours of Sunday and the House will meet again at 2 pm today (April 11) to elect the new Prime Minister after Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed from office through a No-Confidence vote.
Ayaz Sadiq of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, who was chairing the crucial session summoned the session on Monday at 11 am today (April 11) and said the new Prime Minister would be elected then. However, the National Assembly of Pakistan later informed on its official Twitter account that the House will meet at 2 pm on April 11.
Earlier, Sadiq was nominated by Speaker Asad Qaiser to chair the session after the leader of Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), announced to step down as it was not possible for him to continue.
The joint Opposition – a rainbow of socialist, liberal and radically religious parties – secured the support of 174 members in the 342-member National Assembly, more than the needed strength of 172 to oust the Prime Minister on a day full of drama and multiple adjournments of the Lower House.
Meanwhile, the Opposition parties in Pakistan nominated Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as their joint candidate for the country’s Prime Minister’s election.Shehbaz Sharif will return unopposed if no other candidate submitted nomination papers against him.
Sharif’s candidature as the Opposition’s choice for the Prime Ministership was revealed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari during a joint press conference of the opposition parties on March 30.
Shehbaz Sharif, who is set to be the next Prime Minister is the 70-year-old younger brother of former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has served as Chief Minister of the country’s most populous and politically crucial Punjab Province thrice.
Meanwhile, Imran Khan, who came to power in 2018 with promises to create a ‘Naya Pakistan’, had lost the majority last month after some of the coalition partners decided to part ways with his party. The Opposition then filed the No-Confidence Notion on March 8.Khan, who had clung on for almost a week after a united Opposition first tried to remove him, had so far managed to put off the no-confidence vote, which he claimed was part of a foreign-backed plot against him. His allies had then blocked the No-Confidence Notion last week and had dissolved Parliament’s Lower House. This was then followed by Pakistan’s Supreme Court intervening and allowing the vote to go through.A special session was then convened on April 9 in the light of the verdict by the Supreme Court which on April 7 had declared as ‘unconstitutional’ a ruling by the Deputy Speaker to reject the no-trust move against Khan. – THE HINDU, THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
by Daily News Sri Lanka
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