Peshawar: Imran Khan, the head of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, has demanded the judiciary to explain why it opened its doors at midnight on Saturday, hours before he was ousted as prime minister following a successful no-confidence resolution in the National Assembly.
The no-confidence vote came after the Supreme Court overturned the Deputy Speaker’s decision to reject an opposition-sponsored no-confidence resolution against the ruling PTI-led coalition in the National Assembly.
In his first public address on Wednesday at a rally in Peshawar since losing power, Mr Khan directly addressed the judiciary, and asked: “I ask the judiciary that when you opened the court in the dead of night … this nation has known me for 45 years. Have I ever broken the law? When I played cricket, did anyone ever accuse me of match-fixing?”
“Every time a prime minister was deposed, people would applaud it,” Imran said of the rallies that began on Sunday. “But when he was dismissed from office, the public registered a protest.”
He stated again that a “foreign conspiracy” was hatched in Washington with the help of opposition parties to destabilize Pakistan’s PTI administration.
The former prime minister said that those who had hatched the conspiracy were very happy that he was ousted from the government. “I was not dangerous when I was part of the government, but I will be more dangerous now.”
“We will not accept an imported government and people have shown what they want by holding demonstrations against the move,” he said.
In a speech to a large crowd, he stated that the people of Pakistan will not accept Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister since he has 40,000 crore worth of corruption cases against him.
“Because my life and death are in Pakistan, I have never agitated the people against state institutions or the courts during my 25 years in politics. I ask you, what crime did I do that prompted you to open the courts at midnight? “He inquired.
“There are 40,000 crore corruption cases against Shehbaz Sharif. Do you think we will accept him as our Prime Minister? and whoever thinks so… would like to tell that it is not that 1970s Pakistan when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was removed with the help of foreign powers. It is a Naya Pakistan,” he said further.
Imran Khan had attempted to link the opposition’s attempt to unseat him through a no-trust vote with a “foreign conspiracy,” mentioning the US in several addresses. The US, on the other hand, dismissed his claims. Imran Khan has also urged people to come to the streets, while the combined opposition has remained committed to defeating him.
Imran Khan is the first Pakistani Prime Minister to lose a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly.
Despite several attempts to block the no-confidence motion here in the National Assembly, the voting took place after midnight in which as many as 174 members voted in favour of the motion in the 342-member House while members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were absent.
Notably, no Prime Minister has completed a full five-year tenure in Pakistan so far.
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