Pak Cabinet Secretary notifies that Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is not PM

The decision comes hours after President Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly on Khan's advice. This followed the rejection of no-confidence motion against Imran Khan government by deputy Speaker Qasim Suri.

Published on: Apr 3, 2022, 22:10:48 IST

By Shishir Gupta

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Imran Khan is officially no longer the prime minister of Pakistan, according to the latest circular issued by the Pakistan government.

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Ahmed khan Niazi. (ANI)

"Consequent upon the dissolution of Pakistan 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 vide Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, dated 3rd April 2022, Mr Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ceased to hold the office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, with immediate effect," the government statement read.

The decision comes hours after President Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly on Khan's advice. The move came after the rejection of no-confidence motion against Imran Khan government by deputy Speaker Qasim Suri.

Pakistan Cabinet Secretary note stating Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is no longer Pakistan PM

The Cabinet secretary's note makes it clear that Imran Khan is no longer the prime minister and the government is run by the bureaucracy of the country.

The opposition meanwhile has declared PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif as the prime minister with support of 195 members. The opposition appointed Ayaz Sadiq as the speaker who re-validated the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan government.

The opposition filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the dissolution of the Assembly. Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial while adjourning the hearing till Monday, said that all orders and actions initiated by the prime minister and the president regarding the dissolution of the National Assembly will be subject to the court's order.

The all-powerful Pakistan Army has refused any role in the political events unfolding in the state capital. "Army has nothing to do with the political process," Major General Babar Iftikhar, the head of the military's public relations wing said.

The dissolution of the Assembly means that the elections will be held within three months to elect the next government. In the history of Pakistan's politics, no prime minister has completed a full term.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

Get the latest World News, breaking headlines and global updates from the US, UK, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia and other countries. Follow major international events on Hindustan Times.