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Pakistan National Assembly Secretariat on Sunday revised its schedule to elect the new Prime Minister after the ouster of former PM Imran Khan on Saturday midnight.
The session has been shifted from 11 am to 2 pm on April 11, which was earlier scheduled for Monday at 2 pm, reported Geo News. Shehbaz Sharif, Leader of the Opposition, is being considered a frontrunner to be Pakistan's next prime minister. National Assembly will elect a new Leader of the House on Monday. The aspirant candidates can file their nomination papers for the top slot till 2 pm today (Sunday). The nomination papers will be scrutinised till 3 pm today, according to NA Secretariat. In a historic first for Pakistan, Imran Khan was ousted as the prime minister of Pakistan from office through a no-confidence motion after the NA debated on the matter for more than 12 hours and the political situation in the country took a critical turn Saturday night. The session was chaired by Ayaz Sadiq -- a member of the panel of chairs -- after speaker Asad Qasier resigned from his post, reported Geo News. "174 members have recorded their votes in favour of the resolution, consequently the resolution for the vote on no-confidence against Mr Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, has been passed by a majority," Ayaz Sadiq announced after the process of voting was completed. Once the voting was concluded and the result was announced, Opposition leaders delivered their victory speeches. Earlier, the session had been adjourned till 11 am on Monday, April 11. Speaking on the occasion, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif said the country was witnessing a new day and thanked all the joint Opposition leaders for their efforts in uniting the parties against the government. "We cannot thank Allah enough for allowing us to see this new day," said Shahbaz. "We thank everyone for their sacrifices, and now, once again, a Pakistan based on Constitution and law is about to come into existence," the PML-N president said, hoping that the alliance would move the country towards progress, reported Geo News. Shehbaz said this might be the first time in Pakistan that the country's daughters and sisters were sent to prison, but maintained that he wanted to forget the past and move forward. "When the time comes, we will speak in detail, but we want to heal the wounds of the nation; we will not send innocent people to jails, and we will not take revenge," Shabaz said, noting that the law will take its course without interference. "Neither I, nor Bilawal, nor will Maulana Fazlur Rehman interfere. Law will be upheld and we will respect the judiciary," Shahbaz said, thanking Sadiq for chairing the historic session, reported Geo News. Over a month after the no-confidence motion was tabled against Prime Minister Imran Khan on March 8, members of the National Assembly finally cast their votes to make Imran Khan the first prime minister in the country's history to be ousted through a vote of no confidence. Despite several attempts to block the no-confidence motion here in the National Assembly, the voting took place after midnight in which as many as 174 members voted in favour of the motion in the 342-member House while members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were absent. The voting took place after a high political drama in the National Assembly with the Supreme Court overturning the decision of the Deputy Speaker to reject the opposition sponsored no-confidence motion against the ruling PTI-led coalition. No prime minister has completed full five-year tenure in Pakistan's 75-year history. Pakistan, a parliamentary democracy for most of its history, has had a total of 29 prime ministers since 1947. (ANI)
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