Pakistan National Assembly Session Adjourned Thrice, Vote On Trust Motion In Doubt

The crucial session of Pakistan's Parliament convened on Saturday in line with a landmark Supreme Court ruling to decide the fate of embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan witnessed multiple adjournments and heated arguments, but the voting on a no-confidence motion against him appeared to be a distant possibility before the end of the day.

The joint Opposition – a rainbow of socialist, liberal and radically religious parties - need 172 members in the 342-member house to oust Prime Minister Khan. They have garnered the support of more than the needed strength with the help of some allies of the ruling coalition and rebels from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

After the apex court's ruling, the crucial session of the house began at 10:30 am (11 am IST) with Speaker Asad Qaiser, a senior member of Khan’s party, in chair. Since then, the session has been adjourned thrice for one reason or another.

Khan, who was absent from the house, has summoned a meeting of his cabinet ministers on Saturday night at the Prime Ministers' House in Islamabad. Important decisions are expected in the meeting, Geo News reported quoting high-level sources. 

As the session began, Leader of the Opposition and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif hailed Thursday as a historic day in Pakistan’s history when the Supreme Court rejected the deputy speaker's ruling and said that the apex court’s decision had made the country’s future "bright".

Meanwhile, the Khan government on Saturday filed a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging its decision to declare the ruling of the deputy speaker to dismiss the no-confidence resolution against the prime minister as unconstitutional.

The petition, the copies of which are available to media, urged the apex court to "review, recall and set aside" its order, "which is based on errors floating on the surface" and "the captioned causes be dismissed/discharged".

With PTI inputs