Pakistan’s top court ends hearings to solve political crisis

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court ended four days of hearings on Thursday, aiming to solve a political crisis that began when Prime Minister Imran Khan sidestepped a no-confidence motion that seemed certain to unseat him.
Khan dissolved Parliament on Sunday and set the stage for early elections after accusing his opposition of working with the United States to unseat him. His political opponents had arrived in Parliament with more than the 172 votes needed to oust him, after several members of his own party and a key coalition partner deserted him.
The five-member bench of Pakistan’s Supreme Court heard arguments from Khan’s lawyers, his opposition, and the country’s president before adjourning Thursday. The court’s ruling is to be handed down at 7:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT).
Constitutional lawyer Ali Zafar, who also represents Pakistan’s president, said the Supreme Court is to decide whether the deputy Parliamentary Speaker, Qasim Suri, was within his rights to dismiss the no-confidence motion.
Suri dismissed the motion after Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, a close ally of Khan’s, accused the opposition of being disloyal to the state by colluding with a foreign power — the United States — to stage a regime change.
The US State Department issued a statement denying the accusation. Khan said the Americans wanted him “personally” gone because of what he describes as his independent foreign policy, which often favors China and Russia. Khan has also been a strident critic of Washington’s war on terror.