ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday announced to lead a “freedom struggle” after losing a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly which he has repeatedly described as part of an elaborate foreign conspiracy to bring down his government.
Khan lost majority in the National Assembly in recent weeks after defections by dozens of his party’s lawmakers and abandonment by his coalition partners.
Subsequently, he became the first PM in the country’s history to lose a no-confidence motion after some of his close aides in the assembly tried to delay the vote as much as possible.
“Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change,” Khan said in a Twitter post. “It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy.”
Former information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain also announced on Sunday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers would start resigning from the country’s assemblies from tomorrow if Shehbaz Sharif’s nomination papers for the position of prime minister were accepted.
The parliament is scheduled to meet on Monday to elect the new prime minister. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have filed their nomination papers for the election.
Speaking to reporters after a PTI core committee chaired by Khan, Hussain said the party’s leadership had recommended en masse resignations from the assemblies.
“The core committee’s recommendation to the prime minister is to resign from the assemblies,” he announced. “For that, we will start with the National Assembly.”
Hussain said the PTI had nominated Qureshi as its candidate for prime minister since it wanted to challenge Sharif’s nomination papers.
“The day Shehbaz Sharif is to be indicted on a Rs16bn Telegraphic Transfer corruption case, that day he will be contesting the election for the prime minister’s post,” he said.
Hussain informed that most of his party’s lawmakers had already handed over their resignations to the prime minister, adding that a PTI parliamentary meeting would be held later in the day to discuss the issue further.
“We will move toward the next phase of this [resignations] after demanding their [lawmakers] resignations and consulting them over the issue,” he added.
He also said the PTI would begin a “huge movement” under Khan’s leadership against the upcoming “imposed” government.
Hussain called on PTI supporters to come out and protest against the former premier’s ouster during his media talk.
“I have no doubt in my mind that we are heading toward fresh elections in the coming weeks or months,” he said.
Later in the day, thousands of PTI workers and supporters protested across Pakistan in a display of solidarity with Khan and his administration.
The protests were held after former energy minister Hammad Azhar said PTI lawmakers would not sit with the new "puppet administration" of the country.
"It is time for the nation to come out," he told journalists while asking people to "peacefully" demonstrate against the recent political developments after Isha (evening) prayers.