Pakistan PM Imran Khan Holds Cabinet Meet, Top Courts Open As Trust Vote Yet To Take Place: Reports

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting on Saturday night, according to local media reports.

Sources told PTI that it was decided in the meeting that Khan should not resign.

The country's top courts have become active and Islamabad High Court and Supreme Court are expected to become operational by midnight to take action if the orders to complete voting on a no-confidence motion against Khan are not implemented till the end of the day, according to reports.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial has instructed the relevant officials of the top court to open the doors at 12am, sources said, as the National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser is yet to allow voting on the no-confidence motion against Khan.

Islamabad High Court's doors are also being opened on the instructions of IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, sources said.

Meanwhile, the joint Opposition has lodged an official complaint with the Speaker, urging him not to further delay the voting on no-confidence motion against Khan. The joint Opposition said all authorities concerned including him were guilty of “gross contempt and liable to punishment in accordance with law”.

The joint Opposition need 172 members in the 342-member house to oust 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.

Khan, who has been saying that he will fight till the “last ball”, has been claiming that the Opposition’s no-confidence motion against him was the result of a “foreign conspiracy” because of his independent foreign policy and funds were being channelled from abroad to oust him from power. 

In an address to the nation on Friday, Khan reiterated his allegations that a senior US diplomat threatened regime change in Pakistan.

The US has bluntly rejected the allegations.

With PTI inputs