EXPLAINER: What is no-confidence move & what's next for PM Khan

The opposition alliance of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), alongside its renegades Pakistan Peoples Party and Awami National Party, have jointly tabled a no-confidence move after months of uncertainty and hesitancy over the move.

A no-confidence move, once passed by at least 20 per cent of the lawmakers from the lower house of the parliament, or in our case the National Assembly, ensues that the speaker convenes a parliamentary session and takes a vote on the resolution following which it shall be decided whether Prime Minister Imran Khan is here to stay or he’d relinquish his premiership.

As per the National Assembly website: There is a democratic procedure to remove the Prime Minister from his office if he loses confidence of the majority of the members of the National Assembly. In this respect a resolution for a vote of no-confidence is moved by not less then 20% of the total membership of the National Assembly. If the resolution is passed by majority of the total membership of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister immediately relinquished powers.

The only way for this no-confidence motion to succeed is that it musters simple parliamentary majority via a vote. In Pakistan’s case it’s 172 of the total 342 members.

Currently, the PTI government enjoys the majority, hence their PM, with 155 seats of its own and the treasury alliance with MQM (7), PMLQ (5), BAP (5), and misc. (7), standing at 179 votes; while for the opposition’s current standing, it has the organic strength of 168.

Opposition submits no-trust motion against PM Imran Khan

The informed sources said that the opposition also filed a requisition notice seeking a session of the lower house of Parliament to table the no-trust move.

More than 100 lawmakers from the opposition parties have signed the no-confidence motion, sources said.

PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafique, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Ayaz Sadiq, Rana Sanaullah, PPP’s Naveed Qamar, Shazia Marri and JUI-F’s Shahida Akhtar Ali submitted the no-trust motion before NA Secretariat.