Pakistan: Prime Minister Imran Khan ousted
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted on Sunday by a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly, following weeks of political crisis. The motion was approved by 174 of the 342 members of parliament, announced acting Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.
No Prime Minister has ever completed his term in Pakistan since the country’s independence in 1947, but Imran Khan is the first to fall on a vote of no confidence.
His successor at the head of this Islamic republic of 220 million inhabitants, which possesses nuclear weapons, is expected to be Shehbaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
From cricket to the Supreme Court
Imran Khan, 69, famous for leading the national cricket team, the country’s most popular sport, to its only World Cup victory in 1992, and who became Prime Minister in 2018, tried everything to stay in power.
His supporters initially refused last Sunday to submit the motion of censure to a vote and chose to dissolve the Assembly, in order to call early elections.
But the Supreme Court ruled the entire process unconstitutional, reinstated the Assembly, and ordered the vote that led to Imran Khan’s departure. AFP
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