Pakistani Court Declares Dissolution of Assembly Unconstitutional; Imran Khan to Face No-Trust Vote
In a major blow to Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday struck down deputy speaker’s ruling on the rejection of a no-confidence motion against the premier and ordered the restoration of the National Assembly, saying the prime minister’s move to dissolve Parliament and call early elections was “unconstitutional”. Pakistan’s Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial earlier in the day said the controversial ruling is a violation of Article 95 of the Constitution as he said the court will issue a decision in the high-profile case today.
Dubbing Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s claim that the US is looking to overturn his government as concocted, a former top Trump administration official said Wednesday that the country is entering a period of political uncertainty. I think that Imran Khan has concocted this idea that somehow the US is looking to overturn his government. He simply has concocted this story to try to shore up his own base and gain support for his position, said Lisa Curtis, who was Trump Administration’s point person for India during his four years.
He brought in the US as a means to try to hold on to his support base and get his support base riled up. He’s playing the US card, Curtis told.
“A big conspiracy is made against my government internationally and our traitors joined them (outsiders). We have filed a reference against the defectors in the Supreme Court and they should go to jail, he said. He claimed that a major foreign plan was made for a regime change in Pakistan in which these traitors joined them (foreign hands). Most of the people who supported the conspiracy against my government were not aware of it with only those at the top having the knowledge, he said. Khan said that in the forthcoming election the people will bury the politics of these three stooges (PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif, PPP co-chair Asif Zardari and JUI-F leader Maualna Fazlur Rehman) for good.
Pakistan’s outgoing Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday targeted his political opponents, accusing them of conspiring against his government at the best of their foreign masters, in an apparent reference to the US. Addressing the party workers at the Governor’s House here, Khan also chided his own party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, lawmakers who joined hands with the opposition for what he claimed after taking crores of rupees’. “If an enemy country buys 23 to 30 people (lawmakers) with PRs10 to 15 bn it can send an elected government home. If today India decides to topple a government in Pakistan it can do so with just PRs10 to 15bn, he said. Visibly angry over those party men who ditched at this juncture, Khan called them “traitors” and urged his party workers to teach them a lesson in the coming election.
