Imran Khan calls for street protests ahead of no-confidence vote in Pak Assembly
Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan in conversation with select group of foreign journalists at his office suggested he might not accept the vote to oust him from power.
Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday asked the citizens to hold street protests ahead of the no-confidence vote in the national assembly tomorrow.
"If it had been another country where such things were happening, people would have moved to the streets. I call on all of you to move to the streets today and tomorrow. You should do so for your conscience, in the interest of this nation," he said during Q&A session with the Pakistani public on state media.
The 69-year-old politician has been defiant despite the opposition's calls for his resignation declaring he will fight till the last ball. According to news agency Reuters, Khan even suggested he might not accept a vote to oust him.
“How can I accept the result when the entire process is discredited?” the Pakistan PM told a group of journalists earlier today, reiterating his allegations of a foreign conspiracy to remove him from office.
"Foreign conspirators are auctioning Pakistani politicians like goats," Imran Khan said. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) chief during his address to the nation on Thursday mentioned the United States, before fumbling and calling it a foreign power, accusing it of trying to topple his government.
Imran Khan also attacked the opposition, threatening legal action against whom he alleges are trying to topple his government.
"I sat with my lawyers for the entire day and we have made the plan. We will not spare these traitors under any circumstances," he warned.
Imran Khan's PTI alliance is in minority after two allies- the Balochistan Awami Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (Pakistan) joined the opposition ranks. The opposition which has proposed PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif as the prime minister if Khan loses the trust vote, claims support of 177 members against the majority mark of 172 in the 342-member Assembly.
In the history of Pakistani politics, no prime minister has completed a full term in office. Imran Khan is the third PM after Benazir Bhutto and Shaukat Aziz to face a trust vote.
Some analysts say Khan has also lost the crucial support of the military -- claims both sides deny -- and Pakistan's army is key to political power and has ruled the country for more than three decades.
