Members of Imran Khan's party walk out of National Assembly ahead of new Pak PM election
Apr 11, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], April 11 : Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators walked out of the country's National Assembly session which is being held to elect the new Prime Minister.
The session, which was scheduled to begin at 2 pm (local time) began with a short delay. PTI candidate for the prime ministerial post and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he was the party's candidate for the prime minister but it has decided to boycott the election.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif is the joint opposition candidate for the top post and is likely to be elected without much difficulty with Qureshi boycotting the session.
In a historic first for Pakistan, PTI leader Imran Khan was ousted as the prime minister of Pakistan from office through a no-confidence motion after the NA debated on the matter for more than 12 hours. The vote was held on Saturday night amid high political drama with Speaker tendering his resignation.
The session was chaired by Ayaz Sadiq -- a member of the panel of chairs who belongs to PML(N) -- after speaker Asad Qasier resigned from his post.
Sadiq said 174 members recorded their votes in favour of the resolution.
"Consequently the resolution for the vote on no-confidence against Mr Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, has been passed by a majority," he announced after the process of voting was completed.
No prime minister has completed full five-year tenure in Pakistan's 75-year history.
