Imran Khan Within His Rights: Ex-Minister To NDTV On Pak Assembly Dissolution

Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry, known to be the right hand of Imran Khan, on Monday argued that the former Prime Minister's move to dissolve the National Assembly was not unconstitutional -- an allegation the opposition has forcefully made. The Article 58 of Pakistan's Constitution says the National Assembly cannot be dissolved if there is a no-confidence motion against the government.

In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Mr Chaudhry however pointed out that no-confidence motion was dismissed before Imran Khan suggested dissolution of the assembly to the President and announced elections.

"At the moment the assembly was dissolved, there was no no-confidence motion. The Speaker, who is the ultimate arbiter of what is constitutionality, had decided the motion is illegal and unconstitutional so he threw the motion out and the Prime Minister was within his rights to advise the President for dissolution (of assembly)," he told NDTV.

On Sunday, Imran Khan called for fresh elections and advised the President for the dissolution of Assembly minutes after the no-trust motion against his government was dismissed by the Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, who called it against the Constitution and rules of Pakistan. Fresh elections will be held within 90 days.

Terming the move "unconstitutional", the Opposition parties legally challenged the decision in the Supreme Court.

Asked if the Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaaf party will accept the decision of the Supreme Court, his response was in the affirmative, but pointed out that the world over "the courts never undo the Speaker's decision (or) interfere with parliament".

Then he added, "We believe political questions are not to be decided by the courts but by political process. And the process in any crisis is that you go back to the people and ask for election".

He also defended the decision of Imran Khan to skip the National Assembly session in view of his earlier comment of playing "till the last ball".

"We have taken the wicket in the ground. In any democracy, the ultimate arbiter is the people," he said, indicating that the people have been given a chance to elect a government. "You should ask the opposition why they are running away from election," he later added.