Pakistan Assembly Dissolved, elections to be held in 90 days

Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan in a last attempt to change the legacy of non-completion of tenure by any former Pakistani PM had made the President of Pakistan dissolve the National Assembly which consequently dismissed the No-Confidence Voting lined up for the voting. 

The Opposition parties were taken aback by Imran Khan’s advances. They dubbed this out of the blue move as unconstitutional against which they have already approached the Supreme Court to challenge the decision. 

As the Pakistani President nodded to the dissolution, Imran Khan simultaneously asked his followers to march to the streets to peacefully protest against his dismissal from power. 

A timeline of events 

On Saturday: PM Imran Khan had urged the followers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to take to the streets to protest against the assembly’s proceedings, to topple the government. This was followed by the main blow to the present government coalition as its main coalition partner MQM struck a deal with the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

PPP’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Twitter made the MQM and PPP deal public and confirmed of MQM shares the same stand to oust the Imran Khan Government from power. On Sunday: While the opposition party was in a celebratory mode for the up in line No-Confidence Voting.

Imran Khan, who had effectively lost the majority in the 342-member National Assembly, in the last bid to retain power announced his notion of the National Assembly’s Dissolution passed to President Arif Alvi for permission. 

As the proposed notion received the presidential nod, National Assembly’s presiding officer Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri dismissed the No-confidence motion against the present government, stating that the motion was not the no-confidence was not pointed out by the Law Minister which violates rule-based procedure making it revokable. 

The entire procedure was deemed illegitimate by the opposition parties and its lawmakers. Since Mr. Khan was generally expected to lose a no-confidence resolution brought by an alliance of Opposition MPs in the National Assembly, including more than a dozen defectors from Imran Khan’s political party. 

Shehbaz Sharif the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament asserted that they are going to challenge the ruling by the Deputy Speaker and advice by the Prime Minister to dissolve parliament in the Supreme Court. 

As the whole-of-the-opposition hurried their way to get a judiciary intervention from the Supreme Court, Imran Khan retain power by becoming the interim PM till a fresh election could be conducted within the ambit of 90 days. 

As the fumes of military involvement made way, the Pakistani army this time seemed to convey that their involvement was nil in the ongoing political fiasco. 

Khan in a much-televised public speech had said that he was given three choices ahead of the no-trust vote by the establishment: resignation, holding early elections or facing the no-confidence motion. His last trick has managed to collect some time to prepare for the fresh election. 

Major General Babar Iftikhar Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) affirmed that the military had absolutely no role to play in the events that led to the dissolution of the National Assembly.

Imran Khan also seemingly lost support both in the Lower House of the legislature and the backing of the all-powerful Pakistani Army. As the future political discourse remains uncertain for Pakistan, democracy has become a farce as the events go public in Pakistan. While Imran Khan’s political career remains suspended.

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Edited by Subbuthai Padma

Published by Iram Rizvi