Embattled Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan remained defiant on Thursday, telling the nation that he would not resign, even as he faces a no-confidence vote in parliament and the country’s opposition says it has the number of lawmakers necessary to push him out.
Besieged by the opposition and abandoned by coalition partners, Khan is battling for his political survival after the opposition called the vote, which is expected to take place on tomorrow.
The opposition accuses him of economic mismanagement and says that he is unfit for the role of prime minister.
Photo: EPA-EFE
A parliament session which was to debate his role was adjourned on Thursday within minutes of opening and without any explanation.
Lawmakers were reportedly to reconvene tomorrow for a debate and vote on Khan — which could now be a formality, as a series of defections appear to have given Khan’s political opponents the 172 votes in the 342-seat Pakistani National Assembly to push him out.
Earlier on Thursday, Pakistani lawmaker Bilawal Bhutto, the leader of a key opposition party, urged Khan to resign. “You have lost... You have only one option: Resign,” Bhutto said.
However Khan struck a defiant tone in a video address to the nation late on Thursday.
“I will not resign,” the former cricket star turned politician said.
Invoking a cricket analogy, he said: “I will fight until the last ball.”
In his speech, Khan lashed out at the US, saying that Washington had conspired with the Pakistani opposition against him and that the US wants “me, personally, gone ... and everything would be forgiven.”
He claimed that Washington opposed his relentless criticism of the US’ “war on terror,” even though “not a single Pakistani was involved” in the attacks on the US on Sept. 11, 2001.
He also condemned US “drone attacks in Pakistan,” saying that his administration fell out of favor in Washington due to his refusal to agree to allow Pakistan to be used for “over-the-horizon” US missions against terror targets in what is now a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
As for Washington’s dismay at Khan’s visit to Russia on Feb. 24, hours after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Khan said that it underscored US attempts to control Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Khan came to power in 2018, promising to rid Pakistan of corruption even as he partnered with some of the country’s tainted old guard.
He called them “electables” who are necessary to win elections because their wealth and vast land holdings guaranteed votes in large swaths of the country.
In politics, Khan has espoused a more conservative brand of Islam.
He has also kept company with radical clerics, including Maulana Tariq Jameel, who once said that women in short skirts had caused the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Khan is credited with building the country’s foreign reserves, now more than US$18 billion.
Remittances from Pakistanis living abroad was a whopping US$29 billion last year, despite the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, as Khan’s reputation for fighting corruption has encouraged Pakistanis to send money home.
However, the opposition blames him for high inflation and a weak Pakistani rupee.
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