Imran Khan vows to fight on after parliament ousts him as PM
Female police officers detain supporters of Imran Khan's party outside parliament house in Islamabad early on Sunday. AFP
Imran was brought down after a day of drama and often vitriolic remarks. His supporters accused Washington of orchestrating his ouster and his party walked out of parliament shortly before the vote. In the end, 174 lawmakers in the 342-seat National Assembly (NA) voted to depose him, two more than the required simple majority.
Imran’s successor is to be elected and sworn in by parliament on Monday. The leading contender is Shahbaz Sharif, a brother of disgraced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Shahbaz Sharif heads the largest party in a diverse alliance of opposition factions that span the spectrum from the left to radically religious. Imran's nominee for prime minister will be his foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Imran's ouster comes amid his cooling relations with the powerful military and an economy struggling with high inflation and a plummeting Pakistani rupee. The opposition has charged Imran’s government with economic mismanagement.
Imran has claimed the US worked behind the scenes to bring him down, purportedly because of Washington's displeasure over his independent foreign policy choices, which often favour China and Russia. He has occasionally defied America and stridently criticised America's post 9/11 war on terror. Imran said America was deeply disturbed by his visit to Russia and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb.24, the start of the devastating war in Ukraine.
The US State Department has denied his allegations. Elizabeth Threlkeld, a Pakistan expert at the US-based The Stimson Centre, said that even as prime minister, Imran often played the role of opposition leader.
"His removal would see him to a role he knows well, armed with a narrative of victimhood from unfounded claims of international interference,” she said. "His base will remain loyal, though I expect both his controversial attempt to remain in power and reduced military backing will lose him less committed supporters.”
Imran would seem to have few options going forward. General elections are not scheduled before August 2023. Even if the new prime minister favours early elections, this would likely not happen before October. The Pakistan Election Commission, which oversees polls, told the Supreme Court last week it had still to finish re-aligning constituencies in line with the results of a 2017 census before polls could be held.
In the aftermath of Sunday's vote, giant steel containers stacked on top of each other blocked main roads leading to parliament and to the diplomatic enclave in the capital of Islamabad. Imran has called on his supporters to gather late on Sunday, after the end of the daily dawn-to-dusk fast during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center, predicted a turbulent time ahead for Pakistan.
"Imran Khan’s defeat would also leave Pakistan a bitterly partisan and divided place. He has not only intensified political rivalries, he has also defied and alienated key entities like the Army Chief and Pakistan’s foreign office,” said Kugelman. "It will take time for the country to pick up the pieces, and the coming months will be politically turbulent.”
Sunday's vote capped a week-long constitutional crisis that had mesmerised the nation. It began last Sunday when Imran sought to sidestep the no confidence vote by dissolving Parliament and calling early elections, It was then left to the Supreme Court to sort, eventually ruling to reinstate Parliament and demand the vote be he.
Imran has won international praise for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic opting for so called "smart lockdowns" where outbreaks occurred rather than countrywide closures that helped protect some industries like the construction sector. His reputation for fighting corruption has brought a record $21 billion in deposits from overseas Pakistanis.
But he has not been able to overcome an increasingly strained relationship with the army, which has ruled Pakistan directly for more than half its 75-year history and indirectly from the sidelines when civilian governments ruled.
Imran's opponents say the army helped him win the 2018 elections after it had fallen out with Nawaz Sharif, who was convicted of corruption after being named in the so-called Panama Papers. These papers are a collection of leaked secret financial documents showing how some of the world’s richest hide their money and involving a global law firm based in Panama.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified Sharif from holding office. He lives in London in self-imposed exile after being convicted in a Pakistani court of corruption. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Fissures in Khan's relationship with the army began last November after he squabbled with the powerful Army Chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa over the appointment of the new intelligence chief.
Last weekend, Bajwa appeared to distance himself from Imran’s anti-US attacks saying Pakistan wants good relations with Washington, its largest export trading partner and with China. He condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Associated Press
