Pakistan’s Supreme Court began on Monday to examine arguments relating to the scheme which allowed Prime Minister Imran Khan to avoid the vote of a motion of no confidence against him by obtaining the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of early elections.
Pakistan’s highest court adjourned until Tuesday, without issuing a judgment, the examination of the requests presented by the opposition and the government on the legality of the refusal of the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, an Imran loyalist Khan, to put the censure motion to a vote on Sunday.
The opposition was thinking of overthrowing the former star cricketer, after winning enough votes to make him lose his parliamentary majority. But she was taken aback by this last-minute maneuver.
Imran Khan then requested and obtained from the President of the Republic, Arif Alvi, an ally holding this essentially ceremonial position, the dissolution of the National Assembly, which entails the calling of early legislative elections within 90 days.
According to the Constitution, a head of government cannot demand the dissolution of the Assembly when faced with a motion of censure.
Farooq Naek, a lawyer appointed by the opposition, estimated Monday before the Supreme Court that it was not in “the prerogatives” of the vice-president of the Assembly to refuse the holding of the vote on the motion of censure. He had justified his decision by arguing that the motion was the product of “foreign interference”.
“It is a constitutional irregularity combined with bad faith,” denounced Mr. Naek.
“A parody of democracy”
The Supreme Court is theoretically independent, but has often been accused in the past of being at the behest of successive civil or military administrations. Imran Khan must remain in office until the formation of an interim government responsible for organizing the elections. But twists and turns cannot be ruled out, depending on court decisions.
President Alvi wrote on Monday to Imran Khan and the leader of the opposition of the dissolved Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, asking them to agree on the name of an interim prime minister to submit to him in the coming days. Mr. Khan proposed that of the previous president of the Supreme Court, Gulzar Ahmed, who left office in early February.
But Mr. Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), who was tipped to become prime minister if the no-confidence motion had been approved, refused to cooperate. “How can we respond to a letter written by a person who abrogated the Constitution? he declared at a press conference on Monday.
The attitude of Mr. Khan, who has repeatedly denounced the alleged interference of the United States in recent days, has been fiercely condemned by the press.
“A parody of democracy”, according to the title of an editorial published in the daily dawn. “Khan’s ‘surprise’ triggers a constitutional crisis,” also lamented The Nation.
In the grip of his most serious political crisis since taking office in 2018, Imran Khan, 69, has accused the United States of wanting to “change the regime” in Pakistan because of its refusal to align with the positions US regarding Russia and China.
He claimed to have evidence, which he refused to disclose, of Washington’s interference. According to local media, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States recorded a senior US official telling him that relations between the two countries would be better if the prime minister left office. Washington denied.
Imran Khan was elected on the promise of sweeping away decades of corruption symbolized by the two main opposition parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the PML-N. These parties had until then dominated national politics, with periods of power punctuated by military coups.
But Mr. Khan’s position has been weakened by criticized economic management — soaring inflation, a weak rupee and crippling debt — and by his blunders in foreign policy.
Some analysts believed that he 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 consent of the military. Since gaining 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.
On Sunday, Imran Khan said he was “stunned by the reaction” from the opposition. She kept claiming that he had lost the support of the people, so “why now fear the elections?” he launched on Twitter.