No confidence vote to oust Pakistan PM Khan to go ahead: Supreme Court

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ruled that the Deputy Speaker's move to block a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan was unconstitutional.

The top court on Thursday declared Khan's move to dissolve Parliament and call early elections illegal and ordered restoration of the lower house. 

The decision came after four days of hearings by the Supreme Court over the major political crisis. 

Khan will now face a no-confidence vote by lawmakers, the vote that he had tried to sidestep. The assembly will likely convene to vote on Saturday.

After the court announced its decision, Khan said he would continue to fight as he faced a vote to oust him, and would address the nation on Friday.

"I have always & will continue to fight for Pak till the last ball," he said on Twitter, adding he had called a meeting of his cabinet on Friday.

Meanwhile, Pakistani opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said his allies have nominated him as the next prime minister if they are able to vote out Khan on Saturday.

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Political chaos

The deputy speaker of the assembly refused to allow a no-confidence vote against Khan at the weekend. 

The move allowed Khan to get the presidency to dissolve parliament and order an election, which must be held within 90 days. Had the vote taken place, Khan was certain to have been booted from office.

Pakistan has been wracked by political crisis for much of its 75-year existence, and no prime minister has ever seen out a full term.

Khan says Western powers want him removed because he will not stand with them against Russia and China, and the issue is sure to ignite any forthcoming election. Washington has denied any interference.

Pakistan's top court or its powerful military have consistently stepped in whenever turmoil engulfs a democratically elected government in Pakistan. 

The military has remained quiet over the latest crisis although army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa told a security summit in Islamabad over the weekend that Pakistan wants good relations with China, a major investor, and also with the United States, the country's largest export market.

The latest political chaos has spilled over into the country's largest province of Punjab, where 60 percent of Pakistan's 220 million people live and where Khan's ally for chief provincial minister was denied the post on Wednesday, after his political opposition voted in their own candidate.

READ MORE: Pakistan heads for fresh polls as Imran Khan sidesteps parliament vote