A day after he was ousted as Pakistan’s prime minister in a no-confidence motion, Imran Khan on Sunday said that a “freedom struggle against a foreign conspiracy of regime change” has started in the country.

Throughout the dramatic turn of events which resulted in Khan being removed as the prime minister on Saturday, the cricketer-turned-politician had repeatedly alleged that foreign conspiracy was involved in the bid to unseat him.

In his first tweet since being removed as the prime minister, Khan repeated his claims.

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“It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty and democracy,” he said in his tweet.

A total of 174 members in the 342-member National Assembly of Pakistan had voted in favour of the no-trust vote against Khan, two more than the required number of 172.

With the defeat, Khan became the first prime minister in Pakistan’s history to have been ousted through a no-confidence motion. No Pakistani prime minister has completed a full five-year term since the country became independent in 1947.

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Meanwhile on Sunday, Khan also chaired a Parliamentary board meeting of his party’s core committee to discuss future course of action. The meeting was held a day ahead of a sitting of the National Assembly scheduled to be held on Monday to elect the new prime minister.

The energy minister in Khan’s Cabinet, Hammad Azhar, said that peaceful protests will be held across Pakistan against the no-confidence vote.

The Opposition had moved the no-trust vote on March 8 alleging that the cricketer-turned-politician has failed to control inflation and was responsible for the economic crisis in Pakistan.

However, Khan had repeatedly claimed that the Opposition colluded with the United States to unseat him because of his foreign policy choices. The White House has denied any involvement in Pakistan’s internal politics.