The political crisis deepens in Pakistan as members of Imran Khan’s party threatened to resign en masse a day after he was ousted as prime minister following a vote of no-confidence in parliament.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), founded by Khan in 1996, nominated former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as a prime ministerial candidate on Sunday, saying its members would resign en masse should he lose.
“The PTI has decided to resign from the assemblies, (and) this process will start from the National Assembly after the election of the prime minister tomorrow,” party spokesman Fawad Chaudhry tweeted in Urdu.
Khan lost a no-confidence vote in his leadership on Saturday night after opposition parties brought a motion against him, following days of drama. The motion was first brought last week, but Khan initially blocked it by dissolving parliament.
The vote went through after the country’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of opposition parties and said Khan’s move was unconstitutional.
Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, led the bid to topple Khan. He is widely expected to be named the country’s new prime minister on Monday.
“A new dawn has started … This alliance will rebuild Pakistan,” Shehbaz told parliament on Sunday.
If voted in by parliament, Shehbaz – a long-time rival of Khan – would lead the country until October 2023, when the next election is due to be held. His first tasks will include mending fences with the powerful military and the United States while attempting to put the faltering economy back on track.
Khan, who had antagonized the White House throughout his tenure, has accused Washington of orchestrating his ouster. On Sunday, he repeated the allegations that a “foreign conspiracy” was behind efforts to remove him from power.
Since coming to power in 2018, Khan has adopted anti-American rhetoric, while expressing a desire to align Pakistan more closely with China and more recently with Russia. He held talks with President Vladimir Putin on February 24, the day the Russian leader ordered troops into Ukraine.
“The freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy,” Khan said via his official Twitter account, which is followed by more than 15 million and still describes him as prime minister of Pakistan.
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Supporters of Khan, a former cricket star, staged mass rallies in several cities across the country to protest the prime minister’s ouster.
Chaudhry, PTI’s spokesperson, had also called on the people to take to the streets in protest against what he described as a “betrayal of the country’s politics and Constitution.”
In Islamabad, rallies began from Zero Point, with protesters waving flags and chanting slogans in support of the deposed prime minister.
A large number of PTI supporters also turned up in Peshawar to express solidarity with Khan. The party posted footage of the rally on Twitter, declaring, “We want #ImranKhan back” and “Pakistan will not rest until fresh elections are conducted!”
PTI also shared images of past protest rallies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including in Bajaur and Abottabad districts.
Similar rallies were held in other major cities including in Karachi and Lahore.
Khan took to Twitter to praise the spontaneous protests against what he called the “imported govt. led by crooks.”
“Never have such crowds come out so spontaneously and in such numbers in our history, rejecting the imported govt led by crooks,” the ousted premier said.
