Imran Khan is paying the price for his anti-American stance on the Ukraine issue. Soon he retires and possibly goes to jail. Since 1947, the year of Pakistan's independence, none of the country's 21 prime ministers have been able to complete their five-year term. This is a democracy built by Britain in Pakistan.
Author: Khalil Minawi
The government of Pakistan, led by Imran Khan, lost its majority in parliament on Wednesday after the withdrawal of the main party - an ally from the ruling coalition and is approaching resignation.
Beginning Monday (8 Hamala - 28 March), the Pakistani parliament officially began the process of a "vote of confidence" to Imran Khan of representatives of the opposition parties.
The voting process and announcement of the results will last at least three days and no more than seven days, and by Saturday or Sunday next week, and possibly earlier, it will be determined whether Imran Khan can continue to serve as prime minister or not.
Opposition protests against the government of Imran Khan have intensified in Pakistan these days, and it is possible that the current prime minister will face the same fate as his predecessors since independence, who failed to complete a five-year term as prime minister.
Recently, the Pakistani capital of Islamabad witnessed demonstrations by tens of thousands of opponents of the government of Imran Khan. The protests are led by two well-known political and politico-religious figures: Mohammad Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Nawaz Muslim League, and Maulana Fazlur Rahman, leader of Pakistan's Jamiat Ulama Islami Party.
Mohammad Nawaz Sharif as a relatively more popular politician in Pakistan and Maulana Fazlur Rahman as a shrewd religious politician is among the most prominent figures on the country's political scene.
Mohammad Nawaz Sharif has three unsuccessful periods of the premiership (1990-1993, 1997-1999, 2013-2017). He was ousted in the middle of his first term as prime minister on corruption charges. During his second term, he was overthrown in a military coup led by then General Parviz Musharraf, the commander of the army. During his third term as prime minister, he was fired on charges of money laundering and corruption.
None of the country's 21 prime ministers has been able to complete their five-year term since Pakistan's independence in 1947. Each of them left the post earlier than five years later for various reasons, such as assassination, military coup, corruption, failure to govern the country, failure to ensure the country's security, and so on.
Now Imran Khan, leader of the Tehriki Insaf of Pakistan is the 22nd prime minister in the political history of the country. He owes political fame to his sporting reputation as the first cricketer to become the most popular sport in Pakistan in the 1970s and 1980s. He is the prime minister of his country since 1397 (2018).
Imran Khan, in his latest statement on the opposition protests, partly attributed the protest movement to foreign interference and stated, without naming a specific country or providing clear evidence, that the Pakistani government had received a threatening letter from abroad and foreign exchange is used to overthrow the government.
The National Assembly of Pakistan has 342 members and a half plus one vote (at least 172 votes) from the members of the assembly is required to gain repeated confidence or no confidence in the prime minister. Tehriki Insaf Pakistan, led by Imran Khan, has just 155 seats in the National Assembly, although some of them are said to have turned their backs on him in recent days. Some smaller parties also support the ruling party in the National Assembly. Meanwhile, the number of opposition party seats is about 165, not far from 172 for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister.
Some Pakistani experts believe that the National Assembly is likely to pass a vote of no confidence in the prime minister. According to preliminary data, 200 out of 342 members of the National Assembly are expected to vote against Imran Khan, which means that he will be forced to leave the post of prime minister by law.
