ISLAMABAD, April 10 – Opposition politician Shehbaz Sharif submitted his nomination as Pakistan’s next prime minister to lawmakers on Sunday, his party said, after incumbent Imran Khan lost a no-confidence vote in parliament after nearly four years in power.
Three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother Shehbaz, 70, has led an opposition motion in parliament to oust former cricket star Khan and is widely expected to replace him after a vote on Monday.
But Khan’s party also produced papers nominating the former foreign secretary as a candidate for prime minister and said their MPs would resign en masse should he lose, potentially creating the need for urgent by-elections for their seats.
Khan, the first Pakistani prime minister to be ousted by a no-confidence vote, had held out for nearly a week after a united opposition attempted to unseat him for the first time.
On Sunday he repeated allegations that a foreign conspiracy was behind the regime change.
“The freedom struggle begins again today,” he said via his Twitter account, which has more than 15 million followers and which still credits him as Prime Minister of Pakistan in his bio.
Even before the vote, Khan had called for protests to take place late on Sunday.
“I say to all my supporters across Pakistan, on Sunday, after Isha prayer (evening prayer), you all must come out of your homes and protest peacefully against this imported government that is trying to take power,” he said in an address to the nation on Friday.
His government fell in the early hours of Sunday after a 13-hour session that included repeated delays and lengthy speeches from lawmakers from his Pakistani Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
Opposition parties managed to win 174 votes of no confidence in the 342-strong House, giving them the majority they needed to allow Monday’s vote to elect a new prime minister.
Khan’s former Information Minister, Fawad Chaudhry, told reporters about the plan to step down if their nominee doesn’t win.
Supporters of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan chant slogans as they protest after he lost a confidence vote in the Lower House of Parliament in Islamabad, Pakistan April 10, 2022. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
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The speaker would be obliged to accept such resignations, which would require by-elections in what is expected to be more than 100 seats.
That could plunge the country into another crisis, as the electoral commission previously said it was not ready to hold elections before October.
ROLE OF THE MILITARY?
Two sources, who declined to be identified, said the vote that ousted Khan came after powerful army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa met Khan amid criticism of the delay in the parliamentary process. The Supreme Court has also ordered Parliament to be convened and the vote to be held.
The military has ruled the country of 220 million for almost half of its nearly 75-year history.
They took a positive view of Khan and his conservative agenda when he won the 2018 election, but that support dwindled after a row over the appointment of the influential military intelligence chief and economic woes that led to the biggest interest rate hike in decades this week. Continue reading
Khan had angered the United States throughout his tenure, applauding the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last year and more recently accusing the United States of being behind an attempt to oust him. Washington denied the allegation.
Shehbaz Sharif said Khan’s departure was an opportunity for a fresh start.
“A new dawn has dawned… This alliance will rebuild Pakistan,” he told parliament on Sunday.
Sharif was the chief minister of Punjab province for many years and has a reputation as an effective administrator. Continue reading
His first tasks would be to forge ties with the powerful military and the United States, and tend to a faltering economy.
Reporting by Asif Shahzad, Syed Reza Hassan and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam in Islamabad, writing by Alasdair Pal and Charlotte Greenfield, editing by Robert Birsel, Angus MacSwan and Barbara Lewis