Pakistan's embattled Prime Minister Khan is defiant, says he won't resign
Pakistan's embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan remained defiant Thursday, telling the nation he won't resign even as he faces a no-confidence vote in parliament and the country's opposition says it has the numbers to push him out.
Besieged by the opposition and abandoned by coalition partners, Khan is battling for his political survival after the opposition called the vote, which is expected to take place on Sunday.
The opposition accuses him of economic mismanagement and claims he is unfit for the role of prime minister. A parliament session which was to debate his role was adjourned on Thursday within minutes of opening and without any explanation.
Lawmakers were reportedly to reconvene on Sunday for a debate and vote on Khan — which could now be a formality since a series of defections appear to have given Khan's political opponents the 172 votes in the 342-seat house to push him out.
Earlier on Thursday, the leader of a key opposition party, Bilawal Bhutto, urged Khan to resign. “You have lost . ... You have only one option: Resign,” Bhutto said.
But in a video address to the nation late Thursday, Khan struck a defiant tone.
“I will not resign,” said the former cricket star turned politician and added, invoking a cricket analogy: “I will fight until the last ball.”
In his speech, Khan lashed out at the United States, claiming Washington
had conspired with the Pakistani opposition against him and that America wants “me, personally, gone ... and everything would be forgiven.”
He claimed that Washington opposed his relentless criticism of the U.S. war on terror — “and not a single
Pakistani was involved in the 9/11 attacks” — as well as drone attacks in Pakistan and his refusal to agree to allow Pakistan to be used for “over-the-horizon” U.S. missions against terror targets in what is now a Talibanruled Afghanistan.