Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan ousted in no-trust vote


Pakistan PM Imran Khan: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed from office through a no-confidence vote held in the early hours of April 10, 2022.

Key Details:

  • He has become the first premier in the country’s history to be removed through a no-confidence motion.
  • The joint Opposition – a rainbow of socialist, liberal and radically religious parties – secured the support of 174 members in the 342-member National Assembly, more than the needed strength of 172 to oust  Prime Minister on a day full of drama and multiple adjournments of the lower house.
  • No Prime Minister in Pakistan’s history was ever ousted through a no-confidence motion.
  • Also, no Pakistani prime minister has ever completed a full five-year term in office.
  • Earlier, two separate no-trust motions failed respectively against former Premiers Benazir Bhutto in 1989 and Shaukat Aziz in 2006.
  • Mr. Khan, 69, was not present in the Lower House at the time of voting.
  • The removal of Mr. Khan has set in motion the process to elect the new leader of the House.
  • The combined Opposition has already named Shehbaz Sharif, president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as joint candidate.

Background:

  • The opposition had filed the no-confidence motion on March 8, setting a set of events leading to the day of voting and rise in the tension due to Khan’s insistence that he was being targeted as part of a “foreign conspiracy” with the collaboration of top opposition leaders.
  • Mr. Khan, came to power in 2018 with promises to create a ‘Naya Pakistan’.
  • He was dogged by claims of economic mismanagement as his government battled depleting foreign exchange reserves and double-digit inflation.
  • Khan appears to have lost the backing of the strong Army after he refused to endorse the appointment of the ISI spy agency chief in 2021.
  • He eventually agreed, but it strained his relationship with the powerful army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 75-year history and wielded significant power in security and foreign affairs.
  • PM Khan also lost the majority last month after some of the coalition partners decided to part ways while several dissidents openly defied his authority.

About Imran Khan:

  • Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi born 5 October 1952 is a Pakistani politician and former cricketer who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022.
  • He is considered one of cricket's greatest all-rounders.
  • Khan scored 3,807 runs and took 362 wickets in Test cricket and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
  • He began his international cricket career at age 18, in 1971 Test series against England.
  • Khan played until 1992, served as the team's captain intermittently between 1982 and 1992, and won the 1992 Cricket World Cup, in what is Pakistan's first and only victory in the competition.
  • He founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1996, which won a seat in the National Assembly in 2002, and saw Khan serve as an opposition member from Mianwali until 2007.
  • In the 2018 general election, running on a populist platform, PTI emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly and formed a coalition government with independents with Khan as Prime Minister.

 


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