Pakistan’s prime minister survived a vote of confidence on Saturday after the shock defeat of his finance minister earlier in the week underscored the fragility of the ruling coalition.
Imran Khan took 178 of the 172 votes needed to win after the former cricket captain was forced to seek a vote to prove he had a majority to govern after his finance minister lost his senate seat in a tightly contested race.
The prime minister alleged that around 15 of his lawmakers had been “bought” to vote against Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, who led government negotiations with the IMF, after opposition-backed former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani took his Senate seat.
“Imran Khan is not going down in the near-term, but he stands politically weakened by the events of this week,” said Asfandyar Mir, a South-Asia analyst at Stanford University, “he will be playing defence from here on”.
Khan said after the vote he would continue to battle corruption and pledged the economy was on the right track. “We are on the way to economic recovery,” he said.
The vote of confidence was seen as a test of Khan’s popularity at a time the opposition is ramping up pressure on him.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a coalition of opposition parties including the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has since late 2020 intensified its campaign for Khan’s removal by banding together and holding rallies across the country.
Leaders of the PDM have accused Khan and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) of securing its 2018 victory with the backing of the powerful military. Leaders of the PTI and the army deny the claim.
Analysts said that the vote was unlikely to end Khan’s problems. “Imran Khan remains the prime minister but his government’s agony is not about to end,” said Ayaz Amir, a former member of parliament and commentator. “Increasingly the initiative has gone to the hands of the opposition and Imran Khan is left to react.”
Khan’s election as prime minister was widely seen as marking a new chapter in Pakistan’s politics. His anti-corruption platform was popular among middle class and youth voters, who saw him as a break from politics dominated by the country’s wealthy elite.
But he has faced criticism for his failure to lift the economy — Pakistan is under a U$6bn IMF loan programme — and to deliver on his promise to create an Islamic welfare state.
“The poorer segment of Pakistan’s population have been hit the hardest. The prices of food items have risen sharply under this government and that’s a big issue for our people,” said Shaista Pervaiz Malik, an MP for the opposition PML-N.