Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan poked fun at the Opposition leaders on Sunday after successfully evading a no-confidence motion against him in the National Assembly.
The no-trust motion introduced by the joint opposition fell through after Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri declared it illegal as according to him it aimed to topple the government at the behest of a foreign power.
Minutes later, President Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly on advice of Prime Minister Khan.
"The opposition is still unable to understand what happened today," Khan laughingly told his lawmakers.
Khan told them in a meeting in Islamabad that he kept the final decision about defeating the opposition as he wanted to give them a surprise.
"The opposition is clueless about the situation right now. If I had disclosed what I was about to do yesterday, they wouldn't have been shocked,” said Khan, who had effectively lost majority in the 342-member National Assembly.
Khan also said that during the meeting of the National Security Committee last week, which was attended by the army chief as well as the chiefs of all other services, a "threatening letter" that the ambassador of Pakistan sent to foreign ministry was shared.
"The meeting reviewed and debated on the letter, and it was concluded that the letter was, indeed, threatening," he said.
He also alleged that the US officials had met the dissident lawmakers from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which he said was none of their business.
"What was their business talking to foreign diplomats?" the premier questioned. "The no-confidence motion was a foreign conspiracy. It was all connected." He also told his followers: "I remind you all, ghabrana nahi hai (do not panic)." Khan avoided being removed from the office through the no-confidence motion by using the conspiracy theory that the US was plotting to topple him for following an independent policy on Ukraine.
But he is not out of the woods as the Supreme Court is hearing a case about the ruling of the deputy speaker. Even if Khan gets a favorable ruling, his government is over as the parliament has been dissolved.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
