Pakistan's Supreme Court meets on Monday to decide the fate of Prime Minister Imran Khan, after his party blocked a vote of no-confidence and dissolved parliament in a surprise move to prevent his ouster.
Yesterday, Parliament annulled a draft decision to vote no confidence in the Prime Minister, in a surprising move based on Article 5 of the Constitution.
The session’s speaker, Qassem Khan Suri, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, considered that the draft vote of confidence was the result of a conspiracy that would harm the higher national interest, and therefore announced its rejection based on Article 5 of the Constitution, which prevents voting on any draft resolution whose motives are not credible.
Subsequently, the country's President Arif Alvi ordered the dissolution of the Federal Parliament, the local parliaments in the regions, and the government, in response to a request from the Prime Minister.
This decision paves the way for early parliamentary elections within 90 days.
The opposition accused the government of bypassing and violating the articles of the constitution by forcing Parliament to cancel a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, and opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif described preventing the vote as "no less than high treason."
Meanwhile, the office of the president announced in the early hours of this morning that Imran Khan will continue to perform his duties until an interim prime minister is appointed, and did not mention a timetable for appointing a caretaker government or holding new elections.
And the director of Al Jazeera's office in Islamabad Ahmed Barakat reported that (interim) Prime Minister Imran Khan sent a letter to Sharif asking him to nominate whom the opposition deems appropriate to head the transitional government, but he said that the latter is expected to reject the request because he does not recognize the legality of the procedures for dissolving Parliament and the government.