No-confidence vote to be held on April 3, PM Khan says
“Sunday will be a defining day in the country’s political history,” said Prime Minister Imran Khan in his bold speech. On that day, the people’s representatives would decide to which side they would go — “independent foreign policy or slavery of the superpowers”, he said.
Khan declared that he would not resign and face the no-confidence motion of the opposition in the National Assembly on Sunday, April 3.
The premier warned the dissidents from his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party against casting their votes in favour of the opposition’s no-confidence resolution because the nation would “neither forgive nor forget you and the people behind you for becoming a part of the international conspiracy”.
The prime minister during his nearly an hour-long live address to the nation came hours after presiding over the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting which concluded that the communication by foreign official amounted to blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan by the country in question, which was unacceptable under any circumstances.”
During the last 26 years since he joined politics, Khan said he has stood by his words: “I have always said that neither I will bow down before anyone and nor will I let my nation bow down”. He added that “I have never backed down from this stance. When I came to the power, I decided that our foreign policy will be independent, which means it will be for Pakistanis” but nit against any country.
It doesn’t mean that we wanted enmity. When I got the government, I said that we will not have any foreign policy that is not in our favour.”
In his aggressive address to the nation on Thursday, he vowed to foil “an international conspiracy” against his government by opposition leaders and their alleged handlers. Khan named the United States as he spoke of a conspiracy to topple his government by inciting a political campaign to remove him from office.
The US state department has denied it wrote any letter to the Pakistan government on recent political developments.