By PTI
LAHORE: Pakistan’s opposition parties on Thursday upped their ante against embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan, asserting that only a resignation is an “honourable exit” for him.
A defiant Khan said on Thursday that he will not resign despite losing the majority and insisted that he will “fight till the last ball” and face the vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly on Sunday which will decide where the country will go.
Pakistan Peoples’ Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that there is no safe passage for Imran Khan now.
“Only Imran’s resignation is the honourable exit for him. I suggest him do so.”
He said that Imran’s attempt to polarise and scandalise the national security forums and institutions is outrageous.
“Our information is that one of the ministers got this so-called ‘threat’ letter written and posted to him. Then that minister showed this letter to Imran Khan. Imran waved this letter in a public gathering and tried to use it in his favour to run away from the constitutional process. Imran is trying to pressurise and make the institutions disputed,” he added.
Khan’s address on Thursday came at a critical juncture of his political career when he lost majority after defection from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
Two of his allied parties also withdrew their support and joined the ranks of the Opposition.
“Honestly this man (Imran) is on a rampage. He has to be gagged or muzzled before he makes a joke out of the country,” opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz said in a tweet in reaction to Imran Khan’s live address to the nation on Thursday.
“This man is consistently proving that he does not deserve this highest office. Instead of crying before everyone he should muster some courage and resign if some grace is left in him,” she added.
The resolution against the embattled premier was tabled by the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on March 28.
Khan needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition’s bid to topple him.
However, the Opposition claims it has the support of 175 lawmakers and the prime minister should immediately resign.
In a live address to the nation, 69-year-old Khan also discussed a ‘threat letter’ and termed it as part of a foreign conspiracy to remove him as he was not acceptable for following an independent foreign policy.
He named the US as the country behind the threat letter in what appeared to be a slip of tongue.
Sharif pointed out that to this day Khan has not shown the letter to the parliament and the people, and was only sharing select contents of the document and his perception of them.
“Not showing the letter means there is no letter, Imran Niazi is once again telling a new lie as he usually does,” he pointed out.
No Pakistani prime minister has ever completed a full five-year term in office.
Also, no prime minister in Pakistan’s history has ever been ousted through a no-confidence motion, and Khan is the third premier to face the challenge.
The US State Department on Thursday firmly rejected the allegations made by Pakistan’s embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan regarding Washington’s role in an alleged “foreign conspiracy” to oust him from power.
“The United States,” Khan said in what appeared to be a slip of tongue and then alleged that a “foreign country” had sent a “threatening memo” which was against Pakistan.
On Wednesday, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government confirmed that its allegation about a foreign conspiracy was based on a diplomatic cable received from one of the country’s missions abroad.
“The letter stated that the no-confidence motion was being tabled even before it was filed, which means the Opposition was in contact with them,” Khan alleged in his address to the nation.
“There is no truth to these allegations,” a State Department spokesperson said soon after Khan made the allegations in a live televised speech from Islamabad on Thursday.
At a massive public meeting held on Sunday in Islamabad, Khan had pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and waved it at the crowd, claiming it was evidence of an “international conspiracy” being hatched to topple his government.
Khan, 69, said the memo was against him, not against the government.
“It stated that if the no-confidence motion passes, Pakistan will be forgiven, if not, there will be consequences.”
He stated that it was an “official letter” that was communicated to Pakistan’s ambassador, who was taking notes during the meeting.
The premier said the envoy was told that if Imran Khan remains in power, Pakistan would face “difficulties”.
“I am telling my nation today that this is our status. We are a nation of 220 million and another country , and they are not giving any reason, [is issuing threats]. They said that Imran Khan decided to go to Russia on his own even though the Foreign Office and the military leadership was consulted.”
“Our ambassador told them that the decision [to visit Russia was made after consultations] but they are denying it and saying that ‘it was only because of Imran Khan and that our ties cannot be good if he stays.’ What they are actually saying is that they have no issue with the people who will replace Imran Khan.”
The US has asserted that it did not send any letter to Pakistan on the current political situation in the country as it sought to refute allegations of America’s involvement in the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan-led government.
Khan met President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on February 24, the day the Russian leader ordered a “special military operation” against Ukraine.
Khan also became the first Pakistani premier to visit Russia in 23 years after former premier Nawaz Sharif travelled to Moscow in 1999.
