ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Supreme Court ended four days of hearings Thursday in an effort to resolve a major political crisis triggered when Prime Minister Imran Khan and his allies sidestepped a no-confidence motion by opposition lawmakers that seemed certain to unseat him.
Khan dissolved Parliament on Sunday and set the stage for early elections after accusing the opposition of working with the United States to remove him from power. His opponents had garnered the 172 votes needed to oust him in the 342-seat house, after several members of his own party and a key coalition partner defected.
The opposition claimed Khan violated the constitution and took their case to the country’s top court.
During the week, the five-member bench of Pakistan’s Supreme Court heard arguments from Khan’s lawyers, the opposition and the country’s president before adjourning Thursday. The ruling is to be announced later in the evening, after iftar, the meal that breaks the daylong fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Constitutional lawyer Ali Zafar, who also represents Pakistan’s president, said the Supreme Court is to decide whether Khan’s ally and the deputy Parliamentary Speaker, Qasim Suri, was within his rights to dismiss the no-confidence motion.
Khan said Washington wants him gone because of what he describes as his independent foreign policy, which often favours China and Russia. Khan has also been a strident critic of Washington’s war on terror and was criticized for a visit to Moscow on Feb. 24, hoxjmtzywurs after Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine.
The U.S. State Department has denied any involvement in Pakistan’s internal politics. After the no-confidence motion was thrown out, Khan dissolved the parliament and went on national TV to announce early elections.
"This is the unfortunate fact about Pakistani politics — the political issues, which should be settled in the parliament are instead brought to the Supreme Court to settle," said analyst Zahid Hussain, who has authored several books on militancy in the region and Islamabad’s complicated relationship with Washington. "It is just a weakness of the system."
Pakistan’s top court or its powerful military have consistently stepped in whenever turmoil engulfs a democratically elected government in Pakistan. The army has seized power and ruled for more than half of Pakistan’s 75-year history.
The military has remained quiet over the latest crisis although army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa told a security summit in Islamabad over the weekend that Pakistan wants good relations with China, a major investor, and also with the United States, the country’s largest export market.
The latest political chaos has spilled over into the country’s largest province of Punjab, where 60% of Pakistan’s 220 million people live and where Khan’s ally for chief provincial minister was denied the post on Wednesday after his political opposition voted in their own candidate.
