The court ruled that blocking of vote to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan was unconstitutional and ordered restoration of dissolved lower house of the parliament.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ruled that the Deputy Speaker’s move to block a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan was unconstitutional.
The top court on Thursday declared Khan’s move to dissolve Parliament and call early elections illegal and ordered restoration of the lower house.
The decision came after four days of hearings by the Supreme Court over the major political crisis.
Khan will now face a no-confidence vote by lawmakers, the vote that he had tried to sidestep. The assembly will likely convene to vote on Saturday.
On Sunday, the deputy speaker of the assembly refused to allow a no-confidence vote against Khan.
The opposition has said it has 172 votes in the 340-seat house to oust Khan, after several members of his own party and a key coalition partner defected.
Political chaos
The deputy speaker of the assembly refused to allow a no-confidence vote against Khan at the weekend.
The move allowed Khan to get the presidency to dissolve parliament and order an election, which must be held within 90 days.
Had the vote taken place, Khan was certain to have been booted from office.
Pakistan has been wracked by political crisis for much of its 75-year existence, and no prime minister has ever seen out a full term.
Khan says Western powers want him removed because he will not stand with them against Russia and China, and the issue is sure to ignite any forthcoming election.
Washington has denied any interference.
The latest political chaos has spilled over into the country’s largest province of Punjab, where 60 percent of Pakistan’s 220 million people live and where Khan’s ally for chief provincial minister was denied the post on Wednesday after his political opposition voted in their own candidate.
Source: TRT
