New Delhi: Pakistan President Arif Alvi on Sunday dissolved the National Assembly on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s advice, PTI reported.
Pakistan's Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that Cabinet has been dissolved. The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Farrukh Habib, stated that elections will be held within 90 days.
The move came hours after Prime Minister Khan in an address to the nation said that he had advised the Pakistan President to “dissolve assemblies”.
He added that the democrats should go to the public and elections should be held so the people could decide who they wanted in power.
Congratulating Pakistan for the no-trust motion being dismissed, he said the deputy speaker had “rejected the attempt of changing the regime [and] the foreign conspiracy”, Dawn reported.
Asserting that he had been receiving messages from many people who were worried, the cricketer-turned-politician said that “treason” was being committed in front of the nation.
“I want to say ‘ghabrana nahi hai’ (do not worry). God is watching over Pakistan,” he said, Dawn reported.
Stating the “billions of rupees” that had been spent to “buy” the votes of lawmakers would be wasted, Prime Minister Khan advised those who had taken money to donate it to orphanages and the poor.
“Prepare for elections. No corrupt forces will decide what the future of the country will be. When the assemblies will be dissolved, the procedure for the next elections and the caretaker government will begin,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari launched a vitriolic attack on Prime Minister Khan and alleged the government has violated the country’s Constitution.
Zardari called on all institutions to protect, uphold, defend and implement the Constitution of Pakistan.
“Government has violated constitution. did not allow voting on no confidence motion. The united opposition is not leaving parliament. Our lawyers are on their way to Supreme Court. We call on ALL institutions to protect, uphold, defend & implement the constitution of Pakistan,” he tweeted sharing a video of his message.
The PPP chairman’s remarks came after National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, who was chairing today’s session, dismissed the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Khan while terming it a contradiction of Article 5 of the Constitution.