Pakistan SC restores National Assembly
‘An epoch-making day,’ tweets Shehbaz Sharif
Islamabad: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying his move to dissolve Parliament and call early elections was illegal and ordering that the house be restored.
The decision came after four days of hearings by the top court over the major political crisis. Khan will now face a no-confidence vote by lawmakers — the vote that he had tried to sidestep. The assembly will likely convene to vote on Saturday.
The move “is declared to be contrary to the constitution and of no legal effect and is set aside”, the court ruled.
A major political crisis was triggered when Khan and his allies thwarted the motion by opposition lawmakers that seemed certain to unseat him. The opposition has said it has 172 votes in the 342-seat house to oust Khan after several members of his own party and a key coalition partner defected. The standoff threw the country of 220 million people into a full-blown constitutional crisis and sent its currency to all-time lows against the dollar on Thursday.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday he will continue to fight as he faces a vote to oust him, and will address the nation on Friday. “I have, and will always fight for Pakistan till the last ball,” he said on Twitter after losing the legal battle in the top court.
On April 3, the embattled Khan dissolved Parliament and set the stage for early elections after accusing the opposition of working with the United States to remove him from power, a charge that the state department has vehemently denied.
