Legal experts have called the dissolution of the National Assembly unconstitutional, as the Opposition said they would challenge the move in Pakistan’s Supreme Court. An early election is a possibility
Imran Khan will continue as the prime minister of Pakistan despite being de-notified until the appointment of a caretaker prime minister. AP
Pakistan president Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly (NA) on Sunday on the advice of Prime Minister Imran Khan. At the start of the session, ahead of the no-confidence vote in the lower house, Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry read out Article 5 of the Constitution and accused the Opposition of disloyalty to the state.
Dismissing the opposition’s no-confidence motion against Khan, the deputy speaker of the NA, Qasim Suri, said it violated Article 5 of Pakistan’s Constitution.
Chaudhry said that this was the “surprise” move that the government was waiting to deliver.
The Opposition said it would challenge the order in the country’s Supreme Court (SC), as the cricketer-turned-politician called for fresh polls. But what is Article 5 and can it shield Khan? What do experts have to say? We take a look.
Article 5 of the Pakistan Constitution
Article 5, under the heading, “Loyalty to State and obedience to Constitution and law” has two of the following clauses:
(1) Loyalty to the State is the basic duty of every citizen.
(2) Obedience to the Constitution and law is the 10[inviolable] 10 obligation of every citizen wherever he may be and of every other person for the time being within Pakistan.
How has Khan bought time using Article 5?
The Pakistan prime minister has been saying that the no-trust motion is part of a “foreign-funded conspiracy” hatched against his government. Fawad Chaudhary used Clause 1 of Article 5 to reiterate the allegation.
“On March 7, our official ambassador was invited to a meeting attended by the representatives of other countries. The meeting was informed that a motion against PM Imran was being presented,” he said, according to Dawn.
“We were told that relations with Pakistan were dependent on the success of the no-confidence motion. We were told that if the motion fails, then Pakistan’s path would be very difficult. This is an operation for a regime change by a foreign government,” he added.
After Chaudhry spoke, Suri said that the points that the minister had raised are “valid”. “No foreign power shall be allowed to topple an elected government through a conspiracy,” the deputy speaker said.
Can Khan dissolve the Assembly?
According to Article 58 of the Constitution, the prime minister cannot dissolve the National Assembly unless a no-confidence motion, if filed against the chief executive, has been decided, reports Dawn.
Hence Khan turned to President Dr Arif Alvi. “The president of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi, has approved the advice of the prime minister of Pakistan to dissolve the National Assembly under Article 58 (1) read with Article 48(1) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” according to a statement issued by the president’s secretariat on Sunday.