Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, facing the biggest challenge to his rule since being elected in 2018, has called on his supporters to take to the streets as a no-trust vote that could see him thrown out of office comes up today.
Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) effectively lost its majority in the 342-member assembly last week when a key coalition partner said its seven lawmakers would vote with the opposition.
More than a dozen lawmakers from the ruling party have also indicated they will cross the floor, although party leaders are trying to get the courts to prevent them from voting.
On Saturday, Mr Khan called on supporters to take to the streets to peacefully protest against what he said was a “conspiracy” hatched outside Pakistan to unseat him. “I want you all to protest for an independent and free Pakistan,” he said during a public question and answer phone-in broadcast by state media.
Earlier this week, Mr Khan accused the United States of meddling in Pakistan’s affairs. He accused the opposition of conspiring with Washington to remove him because he won’t take the West’s side on global issues against Russia and China.
The opposition is headed by the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – two usually feuding dynastic groups that dominated national politics for decades until Khan forged a coalition against them.
If Mr Khan goes, the PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif is tipped to become the next prime minister – but on Saturday the government moved to have him sent back to jail to await trial on money-laundering charges that have been pending since 2020.
Mr Sharif is the younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted and jailed on corruption charges in 2017 and is currently in Britain after being released from prison two years later for medical treatment.
Some analysts say Mr Khan has lost the crucial support of the military – claims both sides deny – and Pakistan’s army is key to political power.
Mr Khan, a former international cricket star who in 1992 captained Pakistan to their only World Cup win, hinted he still had a card to play. “I have a plan for tomorrow (Sunday), you should not be worried about it. I will show them and will defeat them in the assembly.”
No Pakistan premier has ever completed a full term and he is the third one to face the no-trust vote.
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