Pakistan parliament to meet Saturday to decide PM Imran Khan's fate

Pakistan’s parliament is slated to convene on Saturday to vote on removing Imran Khan as prime minister, an official notice said on Friday, potentially cutting short his term as leader.

The country’s top court ruled late on Thursday that Khan must face the no-confidence vote, which he is widely expected to lose, meaning he would be ousted from office.

The lower house of parliament has been convened for a session on Saturday at 10:30 am (11 am IST), the speaker's office said in an order paper. The vote, brought by the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, is the fourth point on the agenda.

Khan, a former cricket star who took office in 2018, said after Thursday's ruling that “My message to our nation is I have always and will continue to fight for (Pakistan) till the last ball”.

A member of Khan’s government denounced the Supreme Court's decision to quash the prime minister's effort to block the no-confidence vote. “A judicial coup happened last night ... ending parliamentary supremacy!” Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said on Twitter.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court said Khan had acted unconstitutionally in blocking the no-confidence vote when it was due to take place last Sunday, after which he dissolved parliament and called an election.

The ruling was the latest twist in a crisis that has threatened political and economic stability in the country of 220 million people, where the military has ruled for half its history.

Khan, who opposed the US-led intervention in Afghanistan and has developed relations with Russia since he became prime minister, has accused the United States of supporting a plot to oust him. Washington has dismissed the accusation.

The Pakistan government has set up a commission led by a retired Army officer to investigate the alleged “foreign conspiracy” behind the no-confidence motion against embattled Khan, Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry said. The decision to constitute the commission was taken in the Cabinet meeting chaired by the prime minister.

If Khan loses the no-confidence vote, the opposition will put forward a candidate for prime minister.

Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of three-time former PM Nawaz Sharif, said after the court ruling that the Opposition had nominated him to take over should Khan be ousted.

The rupee currency hit all-time lows on Thursday and foreign exchange reserves tumbled. Pakistan’s central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate by 250 basis points on Thursday, the largest such move since 1996. REUTERS & PTI 

Hafiz Saeed sentenced in two cases

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Friday sentenced Mumbai terror attack mastermind and banned Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed to 32 years in jail in two more terror financing cases. Earlier in five such cases, the 71-year-old radical cleric had already been convicted for 36 years imprisonment in five terror financing cases. Total sentence of 68 years’ jail will run concurrently. Saeed may have to spend not many years in jail because his sentence will run concurrently, a lawyer told PTI. The court also imposed a fine of PKR 340,000 on Saeed. Saeed, a UN-designated terrorist on whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty, was arrested in July 2019 in the terror financing cases. PTI