Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has officially ceased to hold the office of the prime minister of Pakistan following a notification by the Cabinet Secretariat.
An official notification by the Cabinet Secretariat released today said, “Consequent upon dissolution of the National Assembly by the president of Pakistan, in terms of Article 58(1) read with Article 48(1) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan….Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi ceased to hold office of the prime minister of Pakistan, with immediate effect.”
Earlier today, the president had dissolved the National Assembly following a request by the prime minister.
The dissolution came after the prime minister, in his address to the nation after the National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri termed the no-confidence motion unconstitutional, said that he had requested the president to dissolve the assembly and to go for election in the country.
The premier also said that he would not let any foreign agenda work against the country and everyone who had taken money from outside to derail the country’s democracy should be ashamed.
Earlier today, the opposition submitted a no-confidence motion against National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, subsequent to which Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri started the session.
More than 100 lawmakers from the opposition parties signed the no-confidence motion against the NA Speaker, including Ayaz Sadiq, Khursheed Shah, Pakistan People’s Party’s Naveed Qamar, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s Shahida Akhtar Ali.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that loyalty to the state was the basic duty of every citizen under Article 5. He reiterated the premier’s earlier claims that a foreign conspiracy was behind the move to oust the government.
Suri dismissed the no-trust motion and adjourned the session for an indefinite period.
In the protest against the government’s decision, the opposition tried to conduct a parallel session of the NA and Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, who was the speaker during PML-N’s tenure, took the seat of the speaker. Later on, the lights were shut in the National Assembly and the parliamentarians were forced to go out.
