Imran Khan’s maneuver to stay in power has failed. Pakistani deputies were preparing, Saturday, April 9, to bring down his government. This vote of a motion of censure comes as the Supreme Court had inflicted, Thursday, a bitter setback to the Pakistani Prime Minister. The latter had tried to escape this opposition motion four days earlier by dissolving the National Assembly and calling for early general elections.
The five magistrates of the country’s highest court had unanimously ruled that the scheme to prevent the vote of no confidence was unconstitutional and that all subsequent decisions were of no legal effect. The National Assembly had therefore been restored, as well as the government.
At 69, the former glory of cricket can therefore no longer escape impeachment: he lost his majority in the lower house of Parliament, victim of defections in his own ranks and within the coalition which had brought him to 2018 at the head of this country of 220 million inhabitants, endowed with nuclear weapons.
“I accept the Court’s decision and I respect the Pakistani judicial system,” said the Prime Minister on Friday evening, opening a speech during which he hinted that he would not recognize an opposition government. He also called on his supporters to come down “peacefully” in the street, Sunday. He took the opportunity to shout down his two great adversaries, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and the Pakistani People’s Party (PPP), two groups which shared power with the army for decades and are now united in their fight once morest the head of government.
Imran Khan also regretted that the country’s highest court did not take into account his accusations of“interference” brought once morest the United States. To justify his refusal to submit to a motion of censure, he had indeed accused Washington of being at the origin of an international conspiracy intended to bring him down, because of his links with China and Russia.
Debt, inflation and unemployment
The opposition, made up of two clans that are also historical rivals, those of the family of the two former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto – for the time being allied with an Islamist party – accuses him of being responsible for the economic crisis. major that crosses the country. Debt, inflation and unemployment have considerably degraded activity and Imran Khan had to appeal to the International Monetary Fund. In recent days, the Pakistani rupee has plummeted.
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