Prime Minister Vote of No Confidence dismissed as foreign conspiracy

Prime Minister Vote of No Confidence: Amid political instability, Prime Minister Imran Khan has sent the President of Pakistan the summary of Assembly dissolution as deputy speaker of the national assembly of Pakistan Qasim Suri dismisses the opposition’s Prime Minister Vote of No Confidence.

Qasim Suri dismissed the opposition’s vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Imran Khan as a “foreign scheme”. The no-confidence motion was defeated using Article 5 of the constitution.

According to Article 5:

• Loyalty to the State is the basic duty of every citizen
• Obedience to the Constitution and law is the [inviolable] obligation of every citizen wherever he may be and of every other person for the time being within Pakistan

Fawad Chaudhry, who took the floor immediately after the session began, stated that every citizen’s basic obligation under Article 5 was to be loyal to the state (1). He repeated the prime minister’s prior comments that the drive to topple the government was the result of a foreign conspiracy.

Also read: Promise fulfilled? 5.5 million employed during Imran Khan’s 3-year stint as PM

“Our ambassador was invited to a meeting with representatives from another country (United States) on March 7. The meeting was informed that a motion was being presented against Prime Minister Imran Khan,” adding that this happened a day before the opposition filed its no-trust motion.

“We were told that the outcome of the no-confidence vote would determine their relationship with Pakistan. If the motion fails, we were warned, Pakistan’s path will be exceedingly difficult. This is a foreign government-led attempt to replace the country’s government,” he said.

The minister questioned how this could be permitted and requested that the deputy speaker rule on the validity of the no-confidence vote.

Suri pointed out that the motion was filed on March 8 and that it should be in accordance with the law and the Constitution. “No foreign power shall be permitted to conspire to overthrow an elected government,” he said, adding that the minister’s concerns were “legitimate.” He dismissed the motion, ruling that it was “contradictory” to the law, the Constitution, and the rules. The session was later prorogued.

Opposition refuses to leave National Assembly

Opposition parties, angered by the NA proceedings, decided to hold their own meeting in the lower house of parliament with PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq illegally sitting on the speaker’s seat.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif described Sunday’s events as “nothing short of high treason.”

“Imran Khan has pushed the country into anarchy. Niazi and his cohort will not be allowed to go scot-free. There will be consequences for [the] blatant and brazen violation of the Constitution. Hope the Supreme Court will play its role to uphold the Constitution,” he said.

It’s however, important to note that Shahbaz Sharif is facing a massive open-&-shirt corruption case wherein he transferred billions of rupees into the bank accounts of his factory workers whose salaries are generally lower than 100,000.

The government had damaged the Constitution by refusing to allow voting on the no-confidence motion, according to PPP Chairman Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari, the son of former President Asif Ali Zardari known as ‘Mr. 10%’ due to his corruption.

“The united opposition is not leaving Parliament. Our lawyers are on their way to Supreme Court. We call on ALL institutions to protect, uphold, defend and implement the Constitution of Pakistan.”

No one can be permitted to “distort” the Constitution in order to save their seat, said PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz who is convicted for forgery and corruption by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Maryam is still on bail from Pakistan’s judiciary often questioned for its partisan decisions & for giving extraordinary relief to the elite class while ignoring millions of pending cases of ordinary citizens.

According to deputy speaker Qasim Suri, lights were turned off to force opposition members out of the national assembly as they refused to leave.

Supreme Court of Pakistan Takes Suo Moto

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has taken Suo Moto notice of the Deputy Speaker’s decision to reject opposition’s No Trust Motion.

According to Article 69, the constitution mandates that no proceedings of the Parliament can be called into question by any court.

Imran Khan government requested the Supreme Court to validate the threatening Official Record of Communication which the SC declined citing Article 69 which bars Courts from questioning the Parliament’s proceedings.

Supreme Court also had earlier ruled that they will not fix time for hearing against blatant horse-trading.

In a rare move, Chief Justice of Pakistan has reached the top court following the demand of the Opposition to review the “unconstitutional” ruling given by NA Deputy Speaker on off day.

Prime Minister Vote of No Confidence: How It All Started

On March 8, the combined opposition of Pakistan, the Pakistan Democratic Movement(PDM) presented the No Confidence Resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The Prime Minister, in a huge public rally on 27 March at Islamabad’s parade ground waved a piece of paper telling the public that a foreign country had threatened Pakistan to remove Imran Khan & that a no-confidence motion by the opposition was related to it. He talked about how a foreign country is using opposition for “regime change”. Read more on the matter by clicking on this link.