প্রকাশ: 03/04/2022
Pakistan’s president dissolved Parliament on Sunday setting
the stage for early elections after the prime minister sidestepped a no-confidence
move earlier in the day.
Imran Khan asked President Arif Alvi to dissolve the
National Assembly, or law-making lower house of Parliament, accusing his
political opposition of working with the United States to overthrow his
government.
Pakistan’s constitution calls for the establishment of an
interim government to see the country toward elections, which are to be held
within 90 days.
Khan’s political opponents have called a decision by the
Parliament’s deputy speaker to throw out their no-confidence resolution illegal
and vowed to go to the Supreme Court.
The battle between Khan, a cricket star turned conservative
Islamic leader, and his political opposition has mired the nation in political
turmoil.
Pakistan’s embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan said Sunday
he will seek early elections after sidestepping a no-confidence challenge and
alleging that a conspiracy to topple his government had failed.
The deputy speaker of Pakistan’s Parliament threw out the
opposition parties’ no-confidence resolution and abruptly ended the session.
Minutes later, Khan went on national television to say he will ask Pakistan’s
president to dissolve Parliament and call early elections.
The developments came after Information Minister Fawad
Chaudhry accused the opposition of colluding with a “foreign power” to stage a
“regime change.”
“I ask people to prepare for the next elections. Thank God,
a conspiracy to topple the government has failed,” Khan said in his address.
The opposition, which said it would stage a protest sit-in
in Parliament, called the deputy speaker’s ruling throwing out the
no-confidence vote illegal and vowed to go to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.
The opposition arrived in Parliament ready to vote Khan out
of power. They needed a simple majority of 172 votes in Pakistan’s 342-seat
Parliament to unseat Khan, a cricket star turned conservative Islamic
politician. Khan’s small but key coalition partners along with 17 of his own
party members joined the opposition to oust him.
The no-confidence vote had been expected sometime after
Parliament convened Sunday but parliamentary rules allow for three to seven
days of debate. The opposition had said it has the numbers for an immediate
vote.
Giant metal containers blocked roads and entrances to the
capital’s diplomatic enclave and to Parliament and other sensitive government
installations in the capital. A defiant Khan called for supporters to stage
demonstrations countrywide to protest the vote.
Khan has accused the opposition of being in cahoots with the
United States to unseat him, saying America wants him gone over his foreign
policy choices that often favor China and Russia. Khan has also been a strident
opponent of America’s war on terror and Pakistan’s partnership in that war with
Washington.
Khan has circulated a memo which he insists provides proof
that Washington conspired with Pakistan’s opposition to unseat him because
America wants “me, personally, gone ... and everything would be forgiven.”
A loss for Khan would have given his opponents the
opportunity to form a new government and rule until elections, which had been
scheduled to be held next year.
Residents of Pakistan’s largest province Punjab were set to
vote Sunday for a new chief minister. Khan’s choice faced a tough challenge and
his opponents claimed they had enough votes to install their choice.
With 60% of Pakistan’s 220 million people living in Punjab,
it is considered the most powerful of the country’s four provinces. Also on
Sunday the government announced the dismissal of the provincial governor, whose
role is largely ceremonial and is chosen by the federal government. But it
further deepened the political turmoil in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s main opposition parties, whose ideologies span
the spectrum from left to right to radically religious, have been rallying for
Khan’s ouster almost since he was elected in 2018.
Khan’s win was mired in controversy amid widespread
accusations that Pakistan’s powerful army helped his Pakistan Tehreek Insaf
(Justice) Party to victory.
Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert with the Washington-based
U.S. Institute of Peace, said the military’s involvement in the 2018 polls
undermined Khan’s legitimacy from the outset.
“The movement against Imran Khan’s government is inseparable
from his controversial rise to power in the 2018 election, which was
manipulated by the army to push Khan over the line,” said Mir. “That really
undermined the legitimacy of the electoral exercise and created the grounds for
the current turmoil. ”
Pakistan’s military has directly ruled Pakistan for more
than half of its 75-year history, overthrowing successive democratically
elected governments. For the remainder of that time it has indirectly
manipulated elected governments from the sidelines.
The opposition has also accused Khan of economic
mismanagement, blaming him for rising prices and high inflation. Still, Khan’s
government is credited with maintaining a foreign reserve account of $18
billion and bringing in a record $29 billion last year from overseas
Pakistanis.
Khan’s anti-corruption reputation is credited with
encouraging expatriate Pakistanis to send money home. His government has also
received international praise for its handling of the COVID-19 crisis and
implementing so-called “smart lockdowns” rather than countrywide shutdowns. As
a result, several of Pakistan’s key industries, such as construction, have
survived.
Khan’s leadership style has often been criticized as
confrontational.
“Khan’s biggest failing has been his insistence on remaining
a partisan leader to the bitter end,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of
the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center.
“He hasn’t been willing to extend a hand across the aisle to
his rivals,” said Kugelman. “He’s remained stubborn and unwilling to make
important compromises. As a result, he’s burned too many bridges at a moment
when he badly needs all the help he can get.”
Khan’s insistence there is U.S. involvement in attempts to
oust him exploits a deep-seated mistrust among many in Pakistan of U.S.
intentions, particularly following 9/11, said Mir.
Washington has often berated Pakistan for doing too little
to fight Islamic militants even as thousands of Pakistanis have died in
militant attacks and the army has lost more than 5,000 soldiers. Pakistan has
been attacked for aiding Taliban insurgents while also being asked to bring
them to the peace table.
“The fact that it has such easy traction in Pakistan speaks
to some of the damage U.S. foreign policy has done in the post 9/11 era in general
and in Pakistan in particular,” said Mir. “There is a reservoir of
anti-American sentiment in the country, which can be instrumentalized easily by
politicians like Khan.”
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