They fought to the end.

But shortly before midnight on Saturday evening, Imran Khan's people cleared the way to avoid an absolute escalation in Pakistan's constitutional crisis.

In the capital, Islamabad, the security forces had already deployed everywhere to nip impending unrest in the bud.

Alexander Haneke

Editor in Politics.

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On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the National Assembly to vote on Saturday on the motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Khan's government, which had been delayed for weeks.

Nevertheless, Khan's confidante, parliament speaker Asad Qaisar, managed to prevent the vote for many hours through ever more delays, until he finally vacated his seat a few minutes before midnight.

Shortly thereafter, 174 MPs finally voted to remove the government - two more than required for a majority.

This is the first time in Pakistan's history of political crises that a prime minister has been overthrown by a vote of no confidence.

Former cricket star Khan had long been ridiculed as a political lightweight until he won the 2018 election against the two traditional political blocs PPP and PML-N.

During his time as captain of the national cricket team, Khan had filled the gossip columns as a sophisticated playboy.

Vain hope for fresh wind

Politically, however, after turning to religion, he portrayed himself as a moderate Islamist campaigning against the influence of the West and the International Monetary Fund.

Many had hoped he would bring a breath of fresh air to Pakistani politics, which for decades has been divided between the two powerful family-dominated, corruption-ridden PPP and PML-N blocs.

But even then, critics were of the opinion that Khan had come to power solely through the massive support of the military, which has always been pulling the strings in Pakistan and which apparently considered the politically inexperienced Khan to be easy to control.

He acted clumsily and was largely unsuccessful politically.

Last but not least, the corona pandemic thwarted most of his reform plans.

Khan was unable to get a grip on the ever-worsening economic crisis.

Dissatisfaction grew, but instead of reaching out to his critics, Khan increasingly resorted to the repressive tools of the military-controlled security agencies.

Recently, the level of criticism among the population of the actually respected army of the nuclear power had reached unprecedented proportions, which is why the generals apparently withdrew their protégé's support.

When the PPP and PML-N opposition blocs finally temporarily buried their old enmity and not only managed to win over Khan's main coalition partners, but also announced numerous MPs from Khan's PTI that they would vote in favor of a motion of no confidence in their government, Khan had himself finally decided to escalate: he began to rave about a conspiracy set up by Washington.

His parliamentary speaker declared the motion of no confidence unconstitutional, citing this "conspiracy" and President Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly at Khan's request.

Khan would have had the opportunity to campaign as head of government.

But the Supreme Court dismantled Khan's allegations of a conspiracy, reinstated Parliament and ordered

Government power is now falling back to the two political forces that have shaped Pakistani politics in recent decades, sometimes against and sometimes with the military.

Shehbaz Sharif, the brother of PML-N strongman and multi-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, submitted his bid to run for prime minister on Sunday.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, grandson of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was murdered in 2008, is apparently to be given an important ministerial post.

Khan's PTI party announced that all of its MPs would resign on Monday in protest.