Ahead of trust vote, Imran Khan urges public to peacefully protest against ‘imported government’

A day ahead of the no-confidence vote against him, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday urged the public to peacefully protest against what he called an “imported government”, reported Dawn.

“All the people should come out of their houses [after Sunday prayers] to protest against the foreign-funded drama and I will be there with you as I will never accept this foreign conspiracy against Pakistan,” he said.

On March 31, Khan had alleged that a “foreign nation” was involved in the attempt to unseat his government through the no-confidence motion. Khan had initially named the United States of America as the country behind the letter, but had quickly dismissed it.

The United States has refuted Khan’s claim.

On April 3, Pakistan’s National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri had dismissed the no-confidence motion against Khan. Suri had ruled that the no-trust vote was linked to a “foreign conspiracy” to topple Khan’s government. Hours later, President Arif Alvi had dissolved the the National Assembly on Khan’s advice.

However, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday restored the National Assembly, calling the decision of the Speaker to dissolve it erroneous. It also ordered Suri to call a session on Saturday to organise the no-trust vote.

In a public address on Friday, Khan said he was saddened by the Supreme Court’s verdict but that he accepted it.

The prime minister said he had expected the court to at least order an investigation into his allegations of foreign interference.

“The SC could have at least asked for and looked at the document to gauge whether we’re speaking the truth,” he said. “I was a bit disappointed because this is a very big issue and there was no discussion on it in the SC.”

Khan said that he wanted to share the “threat letter” which contains the details of the alleged “foreign conspiracy” with the public but could not, reported Geo TV. The prime minister alleged that the letter contained a cipher used to send coded messages by embassies and if such codes were unveiled, all secret information of the country would be in public.

Detailing the contents of the cipher, he claimed Pakistan’s ambassador to the US had met a United States official who said he knew a no-trust vote was coming against the prime minister before the Opposition leaders had filed the motion.

“He said if Imran Khan is saved from it, then Pakistan will have to face consequences,” Khan claimed. “See the arrogance [in his saying that] if the sitting prime minister is not removed, Pakistan will be damaged.”

Khan added: “And then he [US official] said that if [Imran Khan] loses, Pakistan will be forgiven. He did not even say that if [I] lose and whoever comes next, we will first see what he does and then forgive him which means he knew who was coming [to power] and had gotten his achkan sewn.”

He also alleged that US officials had allegedly met the legislators of his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, a few months ago. Opposition parties have claimed that they have the support of some Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf legislators.

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Khan also questioned that if the Opposition is so confident that it has public’s trust, why they were afraid of holding elections.

“They [the Opposition] want to get rid of the corruption cases registered against them,” he added.

The Opposition has alleged that Khan had failed to control inflation and was responsible for the economic crisis in Pakistan.

Currently, Khan’s government is left with 164 members of the National Assembly, while the joint Opposition has 177. The majority mark in the Pakistani National Assembly is 172.

Even before the first no trust vote that was dismissed by the Speaker, Khan had already lost the majority in the 342-member Lower House after his government’s two allies joined hands with the Opposition.