Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s plea to disqualify rebels hits a legal wall – Times of India

ISLAMABAD: PM Imran Khan’s bid to have dissident lawmakers of his party disqualified from voting against him on the no-trust motion in parliament appeared to suffer a setback on Thursday when chief justice of the Supreme Court reportedly observed that not counting a vote cast in the House would be “contemptuous”.
As the court heard a petition filed by the PTI government on invoking Article 63-A to disqualify defecting lawmakers, Imran vowed to surprise his opponents in parliament and invited the nation to witness him doing so. “I will not resign under any circumstance. I will play till the last ball… and I will surprise them,” he said, without giving details.
After losing the support of over 30 lawmakers along with the apparent tilt of his coalition partners against his stay in government, Imran has repeatedly asserted that he is not going out. The alleged neutrality of the powerful military establishment in the political battle playing out over weeks has led Khan to do what several predecessors did in the face of a similar crisis: play the religious card. At every public event, he starts his speech with a Quranic verse. Quoting one verse, he said this was a fight between good and evil with no ambiguity about whose side Muslims should be on.
Politically, Khan has given the impression that he holds a trump card that he will play at the appropriate time – possibly before the vote. His fate, however, appear to be hinging on the government’s allies –PML-Q, MQM-P and Balochistan Awami Party. If these three key allies decide to step back, it would possibly be the end of the road for the government. There remains suspense about which side the 17 lawmakers of the parties will choose to support. Believed to be pawns of the powerful security establishment, they for the time being are giving sleepless nights to the government.
In Pakistan, no civilian PM has yet completed his or her term in office. While most of them were removed through extra-constitutional means, two PMs – Yusuf Raza Gillani and Nawaz Sharif – lost the chair through judicial action. There, however, has not been any instance of any PM being removed through a vote of no-confidence. If the move against Khan succeeds, he would be the country’s first PM to be fired through a no-trust vote.