Peshawar:
The chairman of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf, Imran Khan, has asked the judiciary to explain the motive behind opening the doors at midnight on Saturday, hours before his ouster as prime minister via a successful vote of no confidence in him. the National Assembly.
The no-confidence vote came after a high-profile political drama in the National Assembly, in which the Supreme Court overturned the vice chairman’s decision to reject the opposition-backed vote of no-confidence against the ruling PTI-led coalition.
In his first public speech on Wednesday at a rally in Peshawar since he lost power, Mr Khan addressed the judiciary directly and asked: “I ask the judiciary when you opened the court in the middle of the night. “For 45 years. Have I ever broken the law? Has anyone ever accused me of match fixing when I was playing cricket?”
Referring to the demonstrations that started on Sunday, Imran said: “Every time a prime minister was ousted, people celebrated, but when he was removed from office, the masses registered a protest.”
He reiterated that a “foreign conspiracy” had been plotted in Washington with the help of opposition parties to overthrow the PTI government in Pakistan.
The former prime minister said those who hatched the conspiracy were very happy that he had been ousted from government. “I was not dangerous when I was part of the government, but I will be more dangerous now.”
“We do not accept an imported government and people have shown what they want by holding demonstrations against the move,” he said.
At a mass rally, he stressed that the Pakistani people will not accept Shehbaz Sharif as their prime minister as he has corruption cases worth Rs 40,000 crore.
“During my 25 years in office, I have never provoked the public against any state institutions or the judiciary because my life and death lies in Pakistan. I ask you, what crime did I commit that you opened the courts at midnight?” he asked.
“There are 40,000 crore corruption cases against Shehbaz Sharif. Do you think we will accept him as our prime minister? of foreign powers. It is a Naya Pakistan,” he further said.
Imran Khan had tried to link the opposition’s move to oust him through a no-trust vote with “foreign conspiracy” and mentioned the United States in some of his speeches. However, the United States rejected his accusations. Imran Khan also called on people to take to the streets, while the joint opposition remained steadfast in its goal of defeating him.
Imran Khan is the first Prime Minister of Pakistan to lose a dissenting vote in the National Assembly.
Despite several attempts to block the motion of no confidence here in the National Assembly, the vote took place after midnight, with as many as 174 members voting for the motion in the 342-member House, while members of Pakistan’s ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf were absent.
Strikingly, so far no prime minister has served a full five-year term in Pakistan.