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Imran Khan to seek vote of confidence in Pakistan parliament today

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Mar 06, 2021, 11:45 AM IST
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File photo of Pakistan PM Imran Khan. Photograph:(AFP)

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On Thursday, Khan declared his intention to seek vote of confidence in parliament after Pakistan Finance Minister Abdul Hafiz Sheikh lost his bid for Senate seat

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will face a test on Saturday as he seeks vote of confidence from the parliament. The vote of confidence will be held in Pakistan's National Assembly. On Thursday, Khan declared his intention to seek vote of confidence in parliament after Pakistan Finance Minister Abdul Hafiz Sheikh lost his bid for Senate seat. Imran Khan government had been expected to win the indirect election given the numerical superiority but members of his ruling coalition are widely believed to have voted against Sheikh.

The Senate is the upper house of Pakistan's bicameral parliament.

Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), became the largest party in the Senate in Wednesday's poll. But although it gained ground, interim results on Thursday showed his ruling coalition was still a few seats short of a clear majority.

Imran is not the first Pakistani Prime Minister to face a vote of confidence in the National Assembly. In fact, under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, all prime ministers of Pakistan, from 1985 to 2008, received a vote of confidence from the National Assembly. 

These included the late Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Mir Zafarullah Jamali, Chaudhry Shujaat, Shaukat Aziz, and Yousuf Raza Gilani, reported Geo News. But Imran Khan is also the second in the history of Pakistan who has sought for a `voluntary` vote of confidence. Prior to it, Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sought a voluntary vote of confidence from the National Assembly after his reinstatement was granted by the Supreme Court in 1993.

(With agency inputs)