Shawdesh Desk:

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday announced that he would not recognise an “imported government” after his expected ouster through a no-confidence motion; instead he would go to public and begin struggle against a foreign-backed set-up in the country, reports The Express Tribune.

Urging the masses to come out against the “imported government” on Sunday night, Imran pledged in his televised address to the nation that he would not sit idly by and continue struggle against the foreign intervention into Pakistan’s internal matters.

This is the first time when the prime minister – who is facing a vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly on Saturday (today) – openly talked about his future plans – going to the public. Hitherto, he has been promising to turn the tables on the opposition parties at the last minute.

Speaking a day after the Supreme Court set aside National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri’s ruling of rejecting the no-confidence motion against the prime minister and the subsequent dissolution of the assembly, Imran said he “accepted” the apex court’s judgment.

However, he expressed his disappointment at the decision for not entertaining the issue of foreign conspiracy aimed at toppling his government. He regretted that the apex court didn’t even see the evidence of foreign conspiracy.

The prime minister said that he wished the court had at least ordered a probe into the “threatening letter” and taken suo motu notice of the brazen horse-trading, which had been going on at the Centre and in Punjab.

“It [horse-trading] doesn’t happen even in the banana republics,” he regretted. “No democracy anywhere in the world allows such open buying and selling of lawmakers.”

“I’m only disappointed to the extent that the Supreme Court didn’t even say a word about horse trading,” Imran said, adding that he never saw anything like this in any Western democracies.