Prime Minister Imran Khan was expected to lose a no-confidence vote after members of his own party and coalition sided with the opposition.
WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images
Pakistan's President Arif Alvi on Sunday dissolved the law-making chamber of the country's national assembly, The Associated Press reported.
Alvi dissolved the law-making lower house of Parliament after a plea from Prime Minister Imran Khan, who accused his opposition of working with the US government to overthrow him.
The AP reported that Khan made the request after facing a no-confidence resolution against him. That resolution was likely to pass as 17 members of Khan's own party as well as some coalition partners joined the opposition to remove him as prime minister.
The opposition would have needed 172 of the 342 votes in Parliament to remove Khan which would allow them to be a part of forming an interim government ahead of elections, The AP reported.
Deputy speaker, Qasim Khan Suri, had rejected the opposition's motion for the no-confidence vote on Sunday, The New York Times reported.
The AP reported that Suri, an ally of Khan, threw out the motion after Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the opposition was working with a "foreign power" to enact "regime change."
Suri said Khan was still prime minister and could dissolve parliament. Khan on Sunday called for a new election, side-stepping the no-confidence vote.
In a televised speech, Khan defended his actions by alleging that America is conspiring to remove him from office, but did not offer any evidence, The Times reported.
"Prepare for elections," Khan said. "No corrupt forces will decide what the future of the country will be."
Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert with the Washington-based U.S. Institute of Peace, told The AP, that Khan's claims that the US is trying to oust him plays on the mistrust some Pakistanis have about the US.
Opposition groups said Khan had no right to call for the vote, and that he couldn't dissolve parliament. The AP reported that they planned to take the issue to the Supreme Court. The Times reported that the Supreme Court is expected to hear the issue on Monday.
Mir told the AP that opposition groups, who ranged across a spectrum of ideologies have been trying to unseat Khan since he was elected in 2018.
The military had been accused of helping Khan, a former Cricket player, win the election, which is something that Mir said undermined Khan.
"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," Mir told the AP. "That really undermined the legitimacy of the electoral exercise and created the grounds for the current turmoil. "
