Pakistan lawmakers are set to vote in opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif asthe next prime minister after former cricket star Imran Khan was ousted ina no-confidence motion that ended his four-year run.
A united opposition bloc cobbled together 174 lawmakers to vote againstKhan after midnight Sunday in Islamabad, two more than required to removehim from office. Parliament convenes again on Monday to pick hisreplacement, which will almost certainly be Sharif and who has a morefriendly relationship with the army.
Khan’s ouster came after a fallout with Pakistan’s army over a range ofissues, including interference in military promotions, his rockyrelationship with the U.S. and management of the economy that saw inflationrise at the second fastest pace in Asia. Pakistan’s military has ruled thecountry for almost half of its 75-year history, and no prime minister hascompleted a full term in that time.
“No top Pakistani opposition leader has a closer relationship with themilitary than Shehbaz,” said Michael Kugleman, senior associate for SouthAsia at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “He has avoided confrontationalpositions toward the military and tried to stay above the fray, and thishas helped him enjoy a favorite son status.”
A jubilant Sharif told lawmakers that “a new morning is beginning” afterthe no-confidence results were declared. “The prayers of millions ofPakistanis have been heard,” he said.
Sharif, the younger brother of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, is known tobe an efficient administrator that pushed ambitious infrastructure projectswhen he was chief minister of Punjab. He was also the go-between hisbrother and the army, who had many public spats.
The political shakeup in the world’s fifth-most populous nation is likelyto immediately rebalance Pakistan’s foreign policy more toward the U.S. andEurope. Khan had shifted Pakistan closer to Russia and China, and sought tosabotage the no-confidence vote by claiming the Biden administrationconspired with the opposition to remove him from power.
A Sharif-led government is also likely to help secure about $3 billion leftfrom an International Monetary Fund loan needed to bolster foreign reservesand the currency. The rupee is trading near a record low against the U.S.dollar and foreign currency reserves have dropped to the lowest in abouttwo years, enough to cover a couple months of imports. The central banksurprised analysts last week with the biggest rate hike since 1996.
While he has yet to comment on the results of the no-confidence vote, Khanhas shifted to pressuring Sharif and his allies to call snap electionsbefore the term expires in August 2023 deadline. Khan and his PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf lawmakers will resign from the National Assembly after thenew prime minister is sworn in, according to a tweet from Chaudhry FawadHussain, a close associate and member of parliament.
“It is the first time in our country that one-third of the parliament willresign. It will weaken the parliament,” said Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, aprofessor with the School of Politics and International Relations atQuid-i-Azam University. “By-elections may be called, maybe nationalelections.”
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Khan, who enjoys support from a wide section of Pakistani society, hascalled for peaceful protests across the country after evening prayers onSunday.
In a sign that the nation remained on edge, Pakistan’s military denied aBBC Urdu report that Khan sought to remove a senior army official beforethe no-confidence vote, calling it “totally baseless and pack of lies.”Reuters separately reported the no-confidence vote went ahead after Armychief Qamar Javed Bajwa met with Khan.
This has been a stunning reversal for Khan, who came to power in 2018 witha pledge to look into the country’s soaring debt and start anaccountability program. It was widely thought until recently that Khan wasfully backed by the military, which had also helped him survive severalprevious moves by opponents to remove him from power.
Khan didn’t go quietly with this latest attempt. Last weekend, his partyshocked Pakistan when one of his allies canceled the no-confidence voteover the foreign interference claims, after which Khan quickly called anelection. Pakistan’s opposition called the move treasonous, as theconstitution doesn’t allow parliament to be dissolved during ano-confidence debate.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court later rejected Khan’s rationale for scrapping thevote and ordered for the motion to proceed on Saturday. During theparliament session, Khan’s party triggered multiple adjournments byrepeating claims without showing evidence that the U.S. wanted to oust hisgovernment — an allegation the Biden administration has denied.
When the vote finally took place, opposition lawmakers cheered and clappedas the numbers were called out. Television channels showed opposition partyflags being waved on the streets and celebratory fireworks and gunfiresounded in Karachi and Islamabad.
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