Opposition rallies after PM Khan's show of strength ahead of no-trust vote
Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad in support of opposition parties against Prime Minister Imran Khan, hours after the parliament took up a no-confidence motion in a bid to remove him.
Over a dozen lawmakers belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have backed the opposition group in their efforts to topple Khan’s government.
Khan has lost the crucial support of the country's powerful military, making way for a strong opposition that wants him to step down.
The rally by the opposition came after supporters of Imran Khan and the PTI came out in large numbers in a show of strength.
The no-confidence motion against Khan was tabled in the country's parliament on Monday, and is set to be debated on Thursday with the vote to be held within seven days.
Local media reports said opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif tabled the motion against Khan in Pakistan's National Assembly, the lower house of the parliament.
"The prime minister ceases to hold his office after he has lost the confidence of this house," Sharif said.
The opposition needs a simple majority of 50 percent plus one to topple the PTI government.
Khan needs 172 votes in the house of 342 to foil the bid. Some defections in Khan's ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party and cracks in his coalition partners have made him short of the 172 votes, a simple majority, needed to hold on to power.
Khan has been accused by the opposition of mismanaging the economy and foreign policy since coming to power in 2018.
His embattled government has been banking on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release a 6 billion-dollar rescue package, but the move has been obstructed by the US.
In a rally attended by thousands of his supporters last week, Khan claimed that a "foreign-backed conspiracy" was behind the no-confidence motion against him in the country.
He said the funding "being channeled into Pakistan from abroad" was the reason behind efforts to dislodge his government.
"Attempts are being made through foreign money to change the government in Pakistan. Our people are being used. Mostly inadvertently, but some people are using money against us,” he asserted.
According to reports, more than 20,000 people came out in support of the sitting premier.
“It is a battle for the future of our nation,” the cricketer-turned-politician said in an audio message released on Twitter on Sunday.
The cricketer-turned-politician’s relations with the West, in particular the US, have sharply deteriorated since the botched US exit from Afghanistan.
In his remarks last year, he blamed the US and its international allies of messing it up in the war-ravaged neighboring country.
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