Pakistan President dissolves National Assembly on PM Imran Khan’s advice

Arif Alvi, the Pakistani President, acted on Prime Minister Imran Khan‘s advice on Sunday and approved the dissolution of the National Assembly, media reports suggest. Prime Minister Khan deflected a no-confidence motion on the same day.

PM Imran Khan said in a public statement on Sunday, “I have written to the President to dissolve the assemblies. There should be elections in a democratic way. I call upon the people of Pakistan to prepare for elections.”

Farrukh Habib, who is Pakistan’s Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, said in a statement that fresh elections will be held in 90 days, according to reports from PTI.

Prime Minister Khan, who had effectively lost majority in the 342-member National Assembly, earlier made a brief address to the nation after a stormy parliament session was adjourned by Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri.

Khan congratulated the nation for the no-trust motion being dismissed, saying the deputy speaker had “rejected the attempt of changing the regime [and] the foreign conspiracy”.

“The nation should prepare for the new elections,” he said, adding that the no-confidence was actually a “foreign agenda”.

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The opposition, which said it would stage a protest sit-in in Parliament, called the deputy speaker’s ruling throwing out the no-confidence vote illegal and vowed to go to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.

The no-confidence vote had been expected some time after Parliament convened Sunday but parliamentary rules allow for three to seven days of debate. The opposition had said it has the numbers for an immediate vote.

Pakistan People’s Party’s chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was quick to react to the legislative developments in Pakistan on Sunday. Zardari wrote in a social media post, “Government has violated the constitution. did not allow voting on a no-confidence motion. The united opposition is not leaving parliament. Our lawyers are on their way to Supreme Court.”