Pakistan: Imran Khan Out, Shehbaz Sharif Likely to be New PM

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, April 10: With the Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan failing to execute his delaying plot for voting on the no-confidence motion due to the court’s intervention and was ousted from power in the post-midnight session of the National Assembly, a regime change in the county is in the offing and the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Shehbaz Sharif is all set to take over as the new prime minister.

Khan’s hitherto ruling the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party is likely to boycott the prime minister’s election on Monday as the party on Sunday decided to quit from the National Assembly en masse on Monday if their “reservations” against Sharif’s nomination were not addressed. A special court of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency is likely to indict Sharif and his son Hamza in a money laundering case on the same day, according to reports.

Despite suffering a humiliating defeat in the voting on no-confidence motion, which the opposition got through with 174 votes in favour in the 342-member National Assembly, Khan had refused to budge and unsuccessfully played different tactics to avoid a show of support on the floor of the Parliament. At his behest, the speaker of the National Assembly kept adjourning the House several times during the day on Saturday at slightest provocation from the opposition but finally could not save the day as the Supreme Court set a firm deadline to take the voting on the motion at any cost before 00.30 A.M.

In his first reaction on Sunday after being ousted from power, Khan reiterated his ‘foreign conspiracy’ claim and said the “freedom struggle begins today.” As part of the “freedom struggle,” Khan’s party PTI has decided to resign from the National Assembly on Monday. A special court of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency is likely to indict Mr Sharif and his son Hamza in a money laundering case on the same day, according to reports. Khan reiterated that he would not accept the “Foreign-conspiracy aided administration” as the country’s national government.

Calling the opposition a party of “thugs, robbers and looters”, former Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said it had been decided that the PTI members could not sit and get involved “with these thieves and dacoits in the assembly. Everyone decided with a unanimous consensus that we are going to resign en masse from the NA,” Pakistan media reports said. “All members will resign.” The PTI, however, has also nominated 65-year-old former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi as its candidate for the premier’s post against Shehbaz Sharif.

Khan in a statement said, “Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy,” Mr Khan tweeted. The former PM on Sunday chaired a meeting of the PTI’s central core executive committee (CEC) in Bani Gala to discuss the future course of action as the cricketer-turned-politician appears to continue his brinkmanship and cling to power at all cost.

The joint opposition – a rainbow of socialist, liberal and radically religious parties – secured the support of 174 members in the 342-member assembly in a dramatic vote last night and ousted PM Khan, who became the first PM in the country’s history to be removed by a no-confidence vote. The joint opposition later nominated Shehbaz Sharif, the 70-year-old younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as the candidate for the prime minister’s election, scheduled on Monday.

“Special thanks to media, civil society, lawyers, my Quaid Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, Bilawal Bhutto, Khalid Maqbool, Khalid Magsi, Mosin Dawar, Ali Wazir, Amir Haider Hoti & leaders & workers of all political parties for standing up for the Constitution!” he tweeted. Reportedly, former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chair Asif Ali Zardari had proposed Shehbaz’s name for the prime minister’s position in a joint opposition meeting last month.

Imran Khan was removed as Prime Minister of Pakistan after he lost a vote of confidence in Meanwhile, Pakistan’s investigation agency FIA has put its immigration staff at all international airports on high alert with a directive to stop any government official linked to the Imran Khan regime from travelling abroad without a No-Objection Certificate, a media report said on Sunday.

Though Shehbaz Sharif doesn’t necessarily have the charisma that his brother Nawaz has or isn’t the crowd-puller that his niece Maryam is. Instead, his strength lies in his reputation as a competent administrator. Born into wealth, Shehbaz embraced politics rather than his family business — much like his brother. The son of a wealthy industrialist, he studied at Government College Lahore and joined the family-owned Ittefaq Group that dealt in steel and iron. In 1990, when Nawaz won his first election as prime minister, Shehbaz was elected to the country’s general assembly. During his brother’s second term as prime minister in 1997, he became the chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and powerful province.

Hours after Imran Khan was ousted from power, his close aide’s house was raided and his family’s mobile phones were confiscated, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has alleged. Dr Arsalan Khalid had worked as the focal person for Khan on the digital media team since 2019. “Ex Focal person on PM Imran Khan on Digital, Dr Arsalan Khalid’s home has been raided and they have taken all phones from his family,” Khan’s PTI said on Twitter. “He has never abused anyone on social media & never attacked any institutions,” another tweet said.

The party has urged the Federal Investigation Agency to investigate this incident. Khalid is a graduate of King Edward Medical University and an entrepreneur, and had earlier led the PTI Lahore chapter social media. He had spearheaded the social media campaigns for multiple historic events, including the Digital Media Campaign for General Election 2018, the report added. Former federal minister and PTI leader Asad Umar reacted to the incident, saying that the raid on Khalid’s house is “highly condemnable.”

As the people of Pakistan woke up to a new dawn on Sunday, the details of the gruelling and murky political activities in the preceding day and night have emerged, showing the country may have averted a damning showdown between ousted prime minister Imran Khan and the powerful Army. According to various media reports, Khan made a botched attempt to replace Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in order to bring someone more pliant and sympathetic to his idea of “foreign conspiracy” and cling on to power.