Humbled by Supreme Court, PM Imran Khan to join protest tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan Friday appeared to be visibly retreating from his earlier stance during his nationally televised speech, though he called upon his party supporters to hold protests across the country on Sunday evening.

In his address to the nation on the eve of voting on no-trust motion against him in the National Assembly, he said he would not recognise any ‘imported’ government and go to the public, urging masses, particularly youth, to hold peaceful demonstrations on Sunday.

PM Imran expressed disappointment over the Supreme Court judgment of setting aside the ruling of NA deputy speaker without going through the communication pertaining to the conspiracy of regime change.

In an emotional tone, he asked what mistake he had committed and what his crime was when he made While uttering that the judges should have, at least, gone through the communication the government had received from a foreign state, his voice was choked with emotion.

He gave a call for a peaceful protest on Sunday after Isha (prayers). “Masses brought me and I have to go along with them,” he said. He reiterated that the principles on which he had started his struggle 26 years ago remained unchanged till date and he would not let interests of the 220 million people bartered. While criticising the apex court, he, however, said he respected the judiciary.

He said that the decision was taken so quickly in the SC, while in the presence of Article 63-A, open horse-trading was taking place. “Even children knew it, it was the time of social media, it did not happen anywhere in any democracy, it would have been noticed automatically that how elected representatives’ loyalties were being purchased.” He noted history does not forgive as to who was playing what role.

Referring to the communication, he explained that that was a cipher “our ambassadors send documents in code words from abroad; the cipher message is highly confidential; there is code on it, so he [PM] cannot give it to the public: and if he showed them, our code will be become known abroad”.

However, he again said that the Pak ambassador met the American official, who said that Imran Khan should not have gone to Russia, and when was told that it was a consensus decision, he still insisted it was Imran’s own decision to go to Russia.

PM Imran Khan pointed out that there was no no-trust motion filed in Pakistan when the US official said that if Imran Khan survives the no-trust, then Pakistan will have to face the consequences. He also said that if Imran loses, “we will forgive. We will forgive whoever comes (to power)." PM noted that the US representative knew who was getting ‘sherwani’ made (to wear on the oath-taking day). The premier said that how insulting it was for 220 million people that “he orders us; I am the chief executive, he is not giving it to me, and asking someone else that this will have consequences if he (Imran) goes to Russia; and they will forgive Pakistan, if he does not survive the motion”.

He wondered that why do we celebrate independence on 14th of August, threats come from outside, then people start leaving our party; our people leave and suddenly Imran Khan's evils are known to all. He charged that the media was not ashamed of supporting them that despite being elected on a party ticket, the members were joining the opposition.

The PM said it turned out that the US embassy people were meeting the opposition and this was stated by Atif Khan, Minister from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that one MPA Shandana was told that no-trust motion was coming against PM Imran Khan.

“My fault is that when they saw my whole profile, I was talking about drones, the Iraq war, Afghanistan, not a military solution, there would be talks to resolve issues. If there were 400 drone attacks then who staged a sit-in, it was Imran Khan; they know Imran Khan had staged the sit-in. I have no money outside, so the whole drama is taking place to remove me; they know I will not follow their orders,” he said.

The PM said that “our corrupt politicians suit them, as they have their wealth abroad and they want to safeguard it, and hence they are ready to sacrifice anything for it”.

He said India is a self-sufficient nation and “we have to decide what kind of Pakistan we want, I am sorry, we got independence with India and I know India better than anyone else. They are a self-sufficient nation, no superpower has the courage to dictate them; they cannot even imagine doing so, even though they are importing oil from Russia while there are sanctions on it all over the world”.

The prime minister said that “for me, there is my own nation first, and I cannot sacrifice my nation for the sake of anyone else. What happened in the tribal areas? There were 3.5 million refugees. Our people in power pushed us to wars. We were at the forefront of the war against Russia. When they (rulers) take part in someone's war for money, they do not respect you. They imposed sanctions on Pakistan two years after the departure of the Russians and no one praised Pakistan despite 80,000 people lost their lives”.

He said that “this country has to decide once and for all that our foreign policy will be for betterment of our people: How can we lift 220 million people out of poverty? It will happen only when we will not be part of any conflict, and we will become partners in peace.”

The PM said: “I want to tell the youth that your future is in your hands; democracy cannot be protected by the army and no one can do it from outside as well. So whoever comes to power next will first see that the superpower is not getting angry and he will do what the superpower wants.”

Imran said, “Our foreign policy should be free; it should be for the people of our country, that is, we should have the best relations, we should explain to America that Imran Khan is not against America, but our nation should not be used like a tissue paper. One-sided relations are not required with anyone; look at India, no one had the courage to talk like this in India.”

He said that when the ambassadors of the European Union made a statement here against the protocol that Pakistan should make a statement against Russia, did they have the courage to make such a statement to India. Because India is an independent country, “We became independent at the same time. Yes, the nation has to protect its sovereignty,” he added.

The PM declared, “I tell my youth that I will not accept this imported government at all, and I will go out with the nation. Why are they running away from people? Why they (opposition) did not go to people? We say come to the people (elections), but they are running away, their purpose is not to serve people. They want to pack up NAB and end their corruption cases. At present, the situation is like this, they are afraid, as NAB cases are coming soon, the nation has to keep an eye on it”. He came down hard on Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif for his statement that beggars are not choosers and senior PMLN leader Khwaja Asif saying that Pakistan is on life-support from the US.

The prime minister said that EVMs [electronic voting machines] would be abolished because they (opposition) wanted to rig elections and shelve I-voting for overseas Pakistanis, on whose remittances the country runs. Why they are not being given the right to vote? He added that they wanted to fix their matches by appointing their bureaucrats and then go to the polls. If they are democrats, then they should come to the field.

Meanwhile, according to official sources, the National Assembly (NA) will meet at 10:30am on Saturday (today) for voting on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan. However, it seems the PTI government is still contemplating delaying the process.

The National Assembly session has been summoned on the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which declared the NA deputy speaker’s ruling of April 3 unconstitutional. The court, while unanimously restoring the National Assembly, directed the NA speaker to summon the session on April 9 (today) no later than 10:30am to allow voting on the no-confidence motion. The order of the day, as issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, contains six-point agenda including question hour, two calling attention notices, matters under Rule 18 and voting on the no-confidence resolution, moved by Shehbaz Sharif on March 28, 2022. However, the House will only take up the no-confidence motion, sources said.

“Through this motion, under Clause (1) of Article 95 of the Constitution, the House resolves that it has no confidence in Prime Minister Imran Khan and consequently he should cease to hold office under Clause (4),” the text of the motion said.

However, seeing the writing on the wall, the PTI parliamentary party, in its meeting on Friday, decided that its members would deliver long speeches on the motion. The prime minister has also announced fighting till the last ball. The government parliamentarians will give details relating to an alleged threatening letter from a foreign state during their speeches.

The opposition submitted a no-confidence motion against the NA speaker prior to April 3 and, in yet another development, it also submitted a no-confidence motion against NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri on April 3. PMLN parliamentarian Murtaza Javed Abbasi submitted the motion to the secretary National Assembly. The text of the motion says the deputy speaker set the worst example and violated the Constitution. “The Supreme Court also declared the ruling by the NA deputy speaker unconstitutional,” the motion said, adding that Suri committed violation of Article 6 of the Constitution.

The Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in National Assembly 2007 determine the voting process on no-confidence resolution against prime minister and sum up whole process in the Second Schedule for voting on the motion. The NA rules call for open vote on no-confidence resolution.