Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday obtained the dissolution of parliament and the calling of early elections within three months, after having escaped a motion of no confidence from the opposition intended to overthrow him.
This twist comes as Imran Khan had lost, a few days ago, the parliamentary majority necessary to overcome the motion of censure tabled by the opposition, which accuses him of economic mismanagement and clumsiness in foreign policy.
But Sunday, at the opening of the session during which this motion was to be examined, the vice-president of the National Assembly, Qasim Suri, a faithful of Mr. Khan, created the surprise by announcing that he refused to submit it to a vote, judging it “unconstitutional”.
The news was greeted with rage and amazement by opposition MPs, many of whom refused to leave the Chamber.
“This date will be remembered as a black day in the constitutional history of Pakistan,” said Shehbaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), the favorite to replace Imran Khan in the event success of the motion of censure.
In a speech on state television a few minutes after saving his seat, Imran Khan denounced the “foreign interference” which he said had led to attempts to oust him from power and announced that he was asking the President of Pakistan to dissolve the National Assembly.
Supreme Court
A request to which President Arif Alvi, whose functions are honorary, acceded in stride, which leads to early legislative elections within 90 days.
“We will appeal to the public, hold elections and let the nation decide,” Imran Khan said.
The former national cricketing glory party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, Pakistan Justice Movement), lost its parliamentary majority last week when an allied party announced that its seven MPs would vote with the opposition. More than a dozen PTI deputies had also changed sides.
The opposition and the government immediately filed a series of petitions, and the Supreme Court announced that it would meet on Monday to hear arguments relating to the dissolution of parliament.
“It is of utmost importance that political parties and state officials act in accordance with the law and refrain from taking unconstitutional actions,” said Supreme Justice Umar Ata Bandial.
Imran Khan was elected in 2018 in Pakistan, where no prime minister has ever completed his term.
Interference charges
Earlier this week he accused the United States of interfering in Pakistani affairs. According to local media, he received a report from the Pakistani ambassador in Washington, who recorded the words of a senior US official saying that relations between the two countries would be better if the prime minister left office. Washington denied.
Imran Khan on Sunday again accused the United States of wanting to “change the regime” in Pakistan because of its refusal to align itself with American positions on Russia and China. “This betrayal was unfolding before the eyes of the whole country, the traitors were sitting there planning their plot,” he said in reference to the opposition.
Accused by his detractors of economic mismanagement – galloping inflation, weak rupee and crushing debt – and of clumsiness in foreign policy, Imran Khan, 69, thus overcomes, at least for the moment, his most serious political crisis since his election.
The two main opposition parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League, dominated national politics for decades, with periods of power punctuated by military coups, until that Imran Khan forges a coalition by promising voters in particular to sweep away decades of corruption.
Some analysts believed that Imran Khan had lost the crucial support of the army, the key to Pakistani political power. But it seems unlikely that his spectacular recovery on Sunday could have happened without the military knowing about it, or even giving their blessing.
“The best option in this situation is new elections to allow the new government to deal with economic, political and external problems,” said Talat Masood, a former general turned political analyst.
Since independence in 1947, Pakistan has seen four successful military putsches and at least as many coup attempts, and the country has spent more than three decades under military rule.