Pak PM says disappointed with SC's verdict, calls for protests across country | Highlights

There is rampant horse-trading in the opposition camp. Which country's democracy allows these kinds of acts.I'm not anti-American but we don't need a one-sided relationship. Look at India, no one can dictate to India on their foreign policy(the way they dictate to us)

The Pak PM also batted for voting rights for overseas Pakistanis. 

Imran Khan said no superpower can intimidate India, and the country's foreign policy. "I know India much better than most others. No superpower can dictate India's foreign policy. It is only because of RSS ideology that there has been a breakdown in India-Pakistan ties," he said.

Imran Khan invoked India and the nation's stand on the Russia-Ukraine war. He added that he wants Pak to remain neutral, and added that 'India is not dictated by any superpowers'.

(inputs from local media)

Imran Khan said that Pakistan's US envoys who had met with American officials had said that they had objected to his Russia trip. This is way before no-confidence vote.  'They said if Imran Khan government survives, Pakistan will face consequences. But if he loses, Pakistan will be forgiven. This means they knew the scripts well enough beforehand.'

"I respect the Supreme Court and the judiciary, but the apex court should have looked at the threat letter before issuing the verdict," he said. 

Imran Khan says, "We had expected suo moto action by Supreme Court into horse trading of politicians and parliamentarians. I accept the SC's verdict, but I am very disappointed with the decision."

Imran Khan says he is fighting for justice, and that he will fight till the last ball. 

Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said on Friday that the incumbent government has decided to form a commission to probe the alleged 'foreign conspiracy' behind the no-confidence resolution filed against Prime Minister Imran Khan by the Opposition, Express Tribune reported.

Talking to the media following the Cabinet meeting, the minister stated that the commission will be headed by Lieutenant General (Retd) Tariq Khan.

He said the commission would show that the communique does exist, after the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, claimed it to be fake.

According to Chaudhry, the commission would also investigate if the threat of a "regime change" is present in the communique.

"Thirdly, it will aim to discover who were the local handlers who took this plan further and where the conspiracy originated from," he said, adding that it is impossible for all MNAs to be involved in it.

The minister further said that the government will present the record and witnesses of the 'foreign conspiracy' against Imran Khan to all parliamentarians, Express Tribune reported.

The chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum, called on Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday, a day after the Supreme Court restored the National Assembly and ordered a vote on the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister on Saturday, Samaa TV reported.

During the meeting held at the Prime Minister's house, Khan and Anjum discussed the prevailing situation in the country along with key security issues, the report said.

The meeting came as Khan explores his options after the apex court ruling, which leaves little room for him to maneuver. He plans to address the nation on Friday night.

At today’s PTI parliamentary party meeting, PM Imran Khan clearly said, whatever may happen, I will not allow Shehbaz Sharif “to wear achkan” (means to take oath as PM). Imran Khan told his MPs : “Hum kahin nahin ja rahe hain,aap dekhte jayen, kya hoga… mera istifa dene ka koi irada nahin hai”.

Imran asked his MPs to go to the people and describe how his govt was sought to be toppled by opposition with foreign help.

(ARY news inputs)

Retired Lt Gen Tariq Khan declines to head Joint Investigation Team citing ‘personal reasons’. The JIT was supposed to investigate foreign interference in Pakistan's internal affairs in the context of No Confidence Motion against PM Imran Khan.

Pakistan’s Opposition has completed its initial talks for the formation of a new government once Prime Minister Imran Khan is ousted on Saturday after the no-confidence motion and plans are afoot for the removal of President Arif Alvi and the return of deposed premier Nawaz Sharif from the UK, a media report said on Friday.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, 70, who is the Opposition’s candidate for the new prime minister, will announce his possible government priorities after taking the oath, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

In a landmark 5-0 verdict on Thursday, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial ruled that National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri's ruling rejecting a no-confidence motion against Khan was "contrary to the Constitution and the law, and of no legal effect”.

The apex court also declared the advice by the Prime Minister to President Alvi to dissolve the national assembly as “unconstitutional."

The court ordered the speaker of the lower house to call the session of the national assembly on April 9 at 10 am (local time) to organise a no-confidence vote.

According to the ‘Orders of the Day’ issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Friday, the National Assembly's session for voting on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Khan will take place at 10:30 AM (local time) on Saturday in line with the Supreme Court's order.

In the National Assembly's (NA) agenda, voting on the no-confidence motion is at the fourth position in the six-point agenda.

Pak PM Imran Khan’s cabinet meeting devises strategy for tomorrow’s no-trust vote.  Ministers have been asked to give long-winding speeches tomorrow to stretch the debate. Imran Khan told his MPs, “Hum kahin nahin ja rahe hain,aap dekhte jayen, kya hoga… mera istifa dene ka koi irada nahin hai”.

With SC's rulling, two significant scenarios are before the 'embattled' PM - either he steps down and takes an honorable exit or he faces a no-confidence vote - that he had tried to sidestep. READ STORY

Just ahead of his address to the nation, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a TV interview on Friday, said that a prime minister is like a father. Khan, who is facing a vote of no-confidence in the country's National Assembly, said he witnessed the "growth of Islamophobia". "I saw that no Muslim scholar or head of state could counter this [Islamophobia]," Imran Khan said.

Leader of Opposition in Pakistan's National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, said in a tweet on Friday that the motion of no-confidence tabled in the National Assembly against the Imran Khan government will "prove to be an important milestone in bringing Pakistan out of the darkness of despair and problems". A former chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab, PML(N) leader Shehbaz Sharif went further to add that the country's economy has to be set in the right direction.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan chairs the meeting of the Federal Cabinet in Islamabad, reports Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)