Imran Khan ousted in no-trust vote

The opposition’s no-trust motion against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeded an hour past midnight on Sunday, with 174 members in the 342-strong house voting in favour of the resolution.

Pakistan Muslim League-N’s (PML-N) Ayaz Sadiq, who was chairing the session after Asad Qaiser resigned as speaker, announced the result, after which Imran Khan ceased to hold the office of prime minister, according to Article 95 of the Constitution.

Imran Khan is the first prime minister in Pakistan’s history to have been removed from office through a no-confidence vote. Before him, Shaukat Aziz in 2006, and Benazir Bhutto in 1989, survived the moves against them, DAWN reports.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said Sadiq could not cast his vote as he was chairing the session. PTI dissenting members did not cast their votes either.

Before adjourning the session, Sadiq said the nomination papers for the new prime minister may be submitted by 2pm Sunday and scrutiny would be done by 3pm. He summoned the session on Monday at 11am and said the new premier would be elected then.

Later, it was announced that the assembly would meet at 2:00pm instead.

Earlier, after announcing the result, Sadiq gave the floor to Shehbaz Sharif, who is the joint opposition’s candidate for the post of prime minister. Shehbaz paid tribute to all leaders part of the joint opposition, and vowed that the “new regime would not indulge in politics of revenge”.

“I don’t want to go back to bitterness of the past. We want to forget them and move forward. We will not take revenge or do injustice; we will not send people to jail for no reason, law and justice will take its course,” Shehbaz said.

After Shehbaz, Bilawal took the floor and congratulated the house for passing a no-trust resolution against a premier for the first time in history.