Clean bowled! Pakistan PM Imran Khan voted out of power

April 9: In a high-octane midnight drama, Pakistan’s embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan was voted out of power as 174 members in the country’s National Assembly went against him during the voting for no-confidence motion.

The no-confidence motion, which required 172 votes in the 342-seat parliament to pass, was supported by 174 lawmakers. No Pakistani prime minister has ever completed a five-year term in office in the country’s 75-year history. Khan earlier tried to sidestep the vote by dissolving parliament and calling early elections, but a Supreme Court ruling ordered the vote to go ahead.

Pakistan’s Attorney General has resigned after Imran Khan’s government lost its majority in the National Assembly. Earlier, Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and his deputy Qasim Suri’s have resigned. Following their resignation, invitation has been given to opposition party leader Ayaz Sadiq to preside over the assembly session.

Khan, 69, surged to power in 2018, but recently lost his parliamentary majority when allies quit his coalition government. He became the first prime minister in the country’s history ousted through a vote of no confidence, the only constitutional way to remove the head of government in Pakistan.