Mar 21,2022: Pakistan’s parliament will convene on Friday to take up a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the lower house speaker’s office said on Sunday, heightening fears of political turmoil in the country.
An alliance of opposition parties filed the motion against Khan earlier this month, saying he had lost his parliamentary majority after more than a dozen defections from his party.
Pakistan’s parliament will convene on Friday to take up a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the lower house speaker’s office said on Sunday, heightening fears of political turmoil in the country.
Under the constitution, the speaker of the lower house of parliament is required to convene the session within 14 days of receiving the motion, a deadline which would fall on Monday.
But a statement from the speaker’s office said the date was pushed back several days because of a conference of Islamic countries in the capital Islamabad scheduled for March 23.
Without the coalition partners and the dissidents, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which has 155 seats in the lower house, would fall short of the 172 needed to retain power.
The joint opposition has a strength of nearly 163 but could build a majority if most of the defectors effectively join its ranks via a no-confidence vote.
The opposition accuses Khan of mismanaging the economy and foreign policy.
No Pakistani PM has ever completed a full term.
