No-trust vote against Imran Khan ‘important milestone’ for Pakistan: Shehbaz Sharif

The embattled Pakistan Prime Minister will face the vote on Saturday after the country's Supreme Court, on Thursday, reversed deputy National Assembly speaker Qasim Suri's April 3 ruling dismissing the no-trust vote.

Ahead of Saturday's no-trust vote against embattled Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, his likely successor and leader of the Opposition, Shehbaz Sharif, on Friday described the impending vote against the premier as an ‘important milestone’ for the country.

PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif (File Photo/Reuters)

“The no-confidence motion will be an important milestone in bringing Pakistan out of the darkness of disappointments and problems. It is being brought on behalf of the 22 crore people of Pakistan,” he said in a tweet, translated roughly from Urdu.

“Pakistan needs the ointment of collective wisdom, solidarity and consensus. We, as a nation, will overcome the storm of all our problems,” the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chief further said.

Last Sunday, after deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Qasim Suri, who is from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), dismissed the no-trust vote against Imran Khan, the joint opposition declared Shehbaz Sharif as the ‘new’ Prime Minister. The opposition also moved Supreme Court against Suri's decision.

On Thursday, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by chief justice Umar Ata Bandial, unanimously overturned the deputy speaker's ruling and, in a double blow to the former cricketer-turned-politician, also reversed President Arif Alvi's order to dissolve the provincial assemblies and the National Assembly.

Reacting to the judgment, Khan said he will ‘fight till the last ball.’ The 69-year-old leader, who has repeatedly claimed that an ‘international conspiracy’ has been hatched to topple his government, will address his nation later today.