Imran Khan vows to fight on after Pakistan Supreme Court rules against plan to scrap election and no-confidence vote looms
- Moves to keep the besieged leader in power by dissolving parliament and calling early elections were declared illegal in a unanimous decision
- Khan vowed to keep fighting, saying he had called a cabinet meeting and would address the nation on Friday. The no-confidence vote will take place on Saturday
Pakistan’s Supreme Court overturned Prime Minister Imran Khan’s move to hold an election and reinstated the national assembly four days after he dismissed it, bringing the embattled leader one step closer to being removed from office.
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial unanimously outlawed the cancellation of no-confidence vote against Khan, who was certain to lose by a substantial margin. The vote will now take place on Saturday.
The court also reinstated Khan as full-fledged prime minister and his cabinet with immediate effect so as to end the power vacuum created by the dissolution of the national assembly.
Khan vowed to keep fighting, and said he would address the nation on Friday and would “continue to fight for [Pakistan] until the last ball”. He said he had also called for a cabinet meeting.
The political instability risks delaying the release of a loan installment from the International Monetary Fund. A sliding rupee, surging inflation, and falling foreign-currency reserves forced the central bank to surprise markets earlier Thursday with the biggest interest rate increase since 1996.