Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, April 5: In a clear sign that Imran Khan is throwing Pakistan into the Russian lap, Moscow on Tuesday strongly criticised the United States and said the embattled prime minister was paying the price for “disobedience” to Washington, even as the Pakistan Supreme Court adjourned until Wednesday a hearing to decide the legality of Khan blocking an opposition bid to oust him leading to the current political turmoil in the country.
Picking up the thread from Khan’s public outcry that a “foreign power” was behind the opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion against his government in Pakistan’s National Assembly, Russia called it “another attempt of shameless interference” by the US into the internal affairs of Pakistan and asserted that Khan was paying the price for being “disobedient” to Washington and being punished for visiting Russia in February this year despite US insisting him not to.
Khan met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on February 24, the day the Russian leader had ordered a “special military operation” against Ukraine. In doing so, he had also become the first Pakistani premier to visit Russia in 23 years after former premier Nawaz Sharif travelled to Moscow in 1999.
On Monday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said despite pressure from the US to cancel his visit to Moscow, Khan went ahead with his trip. “Immediately after the announcement of the working visit of Imran Khan to Moscow on February 23-24 this year, the Americans and their Western associates began to exert rude pressure on the Prime Minister, demanding an ultimatum to cancel the trip,” Zakharova said in a commentary on the controversy over Khan’s allegation that the US was trying to effect a regime change in Islamabad.
“This is another attempt of shameless interference by the US in the internal affairs of an independent state for its own selfish purposes. The above facts eloquently testify to this,” Zakharova said. The US-led West has imposed a series of crippling sanctions on Russia since it invaded Ukraine and has been pressing other nations to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and other products.
The senior Russian diplomat said the sequence of events left no doubt that Washington had “decided to punish a disobedient Imran Khan,” which also explained why a number of members from Khan’s ruling coalition decided to switch sides and shift their allegiances ahead of the April 3 no-trust vote.
Khan, 69, stunned the Opposition on Sunday by recommending snap elections within three months, minutes after a no-confidence motion against him was dismissed by the deputy speaker of the National Assembly terming the motion a “foreign conspiracy” and therefore unconstitutional. Khan decided to take the matter to the public after claiming to have found a letter written by the US to the opposition leaders in Pakistan to dislodge the Khan government. Khan had named senior US diplomat Donald Lu as the person who was allegedly involved in the “foreign conspiracy” to oust his government through the no-confidence vote tabled by the Opposition.
Pakistan’s Opposition leaders have ridiculed Khan’s allegation, and the US has dismissed these claims. Zakharova said Moscow was keenly watching the events unfolding in Islamabad over the last three days as well as the events preceding it. In her commentary, she exuded hope that the Pakistani voters would be well-informed about these circumstances when they come to vote in the elections that are scheduled to be held 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly.
The stand-off has thrown the country of 220 million people, ruled by the military for extended periods since independence in 1947, into a full-blown constitutional crisis.
The opposition challenged Khan’s decision in a legal case in the Supreme Court that began on Monday. The panel of five judges has not said when it might give a ruling. “Our concern is about the legality of the ruling of the speaker,” Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial said at the hearing. “We don’t want to indulge in policy matters.” Opposition lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan said Khan’s actions were a violation of the constitution. “This is not just a matter of procedure but it is in negation of parliamentary democracy,” he told the court.
The hearing was adjourned on Tuesday after legal arguments against the move were concluded. The court will hear from Khan’s team on Wednesday. The court could order that parliament be reconstituted, call for a new election or bar Khan from standing again if he is found to have acted unconstitutionally. The court could also decide that it cannot intervene in parliamentary affairs. Lengthy legal proceedings would create a power vacuum with implications for issues such as talks with the International Monetary Fund to secure funds to support the cash-strapped economy. Political chaos would also worry the powerful military, which has stepped in to remove civilian governments and rule on three occasions, citing the need to end political uncertainty.
The turmoil also threatens to damage ties with long-time ally the United States, after Khan accused it of being behind the plot to overthrow him. But Pakistan’s security agencies have not found credible evidence to confirm Khan’s complaint of a foreign conspiracy, an official in the government claimed. Khan and the deputy speaker had said Pakistan’s National Security Committee, a top panel that groups civilian officials as well as the military and intelligence chiefs, had confirmed a plot to overthrow him.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s election commission on Tuesday said it would fulfil its responsibility to hold general elections in the country if required. “Election Commission will fulfil its responsibility under the Constitution and the law. The meeting will review the preparation in the event of general elections,” the spokesperson of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), said. “There is no truth in the reports that the next general elections cannot be held in three months,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier in a tweet, the commission stated that “It is necessary to clarify that the Election Commission of Pakistan has not issued any statement regarding the election.” The ECP’s clarification came following media reports stating that the commission would not be able to conduct general elections in three months due to some procedural and legal challenges.