Ending a high political drama for the last several weeks that literally lasted till the last minute, the Imran Khan lost the no-confidence motion in the National Assembly just minutes before midnight, avoiding contempt of court proceedings by the Supreme Court. The trust vote was to take place by 10.30 AM as per the Supreme Court of Pakistan order, but the government refused to hold the voting for the whole day.
The no-trust vote was conducted by PMLN leader Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, immediately after both the speaker and the deputy speaker of the house resigned from their posts. PM Imran Khan didn’t attend the national assembly during the entire process. The moment the non-confidence motion was put to vote, the fall of Imran Khan govt became certain, as the ruling party does not have numbers. The united opposition had 176 members, more than then halfway mark of 172. Eventually 174 members voted in favor of the no-confidence motion, more than enough to remove Imran Khan as Prime Minister.
Before the trust vote was finally taken, the parliament session was adjourned several times in the day, with speaker Asad Qaiser refusing to put the motion of no-confidence moved by opposition to vote. He had gone to the extent of saying that he has 30-year-old friendship with Imran Khan, and he will not conduct the voting which the govt was sure to lose.
Last time the session was adjourned at 8.30, and it was announced that the session will reconvene at 9.30 PM, with the expectation that the voting will take place at that time. But the house didn’t reconvene till 11.30 PM Pakistani time. As there was a possibility that the voting will not take place today, the Pakistani Supreme Court had ordered to open the court immediately after midnight, to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the speaker and the deputy speaker of the house. It may be noted that the Supreme Court had ordered that the trust vote must take place by Saturday.
Prison vans and military troops were also placed in front of the national assembly, for possible arrest of the speaker and deputy speaker for contempt of supreme court.
However in a dramatic turn, the session was reconvened minutes before midnight, and speaker Asad Qaiser announced that he is resigning from the post. Before that deputy speaker Qasim Suri had also tendered his resignation.
Qaiser also requested former speaker and PMLN leader Ayaz Sadiq to taker of the charge as acting speaker and conduct the proceedings. Accordingly, Sadiq occupied the chair of the speaker and conducted the voting on the no-confidence motion. After ordering the vote, the house was adjourned for 2 minutes, which was reconvened at 12.02 AM on Sunday.
The trust vote was originally scheduled on last Sunday, but in a surprising move, deputy speaker Qasim Suri had dismissed the motion, refusing to put it to vote. Immediately after that, Imran Khan has recommended dissolution of the national assembly and announced fresh elections, which was accepted by the president. But the opposition had moved Supreme Court against it, the apex court had ruled the action of deputy speaker unconstitutional. The court had restored the national assembly on Thursday, and had ordered trust vote by Saturday.
