Lawmakers demand Pakistani President impeachment

 Nasir Kazmi

Press TV, Islamabad

The Pakistani government is all set to launch an impeachment proceeding against President Arif Alvi and demanded the authorities concerned to start the constitutional process to remove him from power.

The possibility of impeachment was raised by Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and then elaborated on by many lawmakers, just hours after the president addressed a joint session of the parliament on Thursday to mark the beginning of the last parliamentary year of the current National Assembly.

The MPs from the ruling coalition say that President Alvi - backed by the ousted Prime Minster Imran Khan - has violated the country’s constitution since his party’s government was removed from office through a vote of no confidence.

Pakistan’s Tehreek e Insaf party chief Imran Khan, who was deposed through a legislative no-confidence vote in April, has been staging massive rallies of his party supporters nationwide to press for early elections, alleging that his government was overthrown through a conspiracy hatched by the United States.

Under the Constitution of Pakistan, the president could be impeached only by a two-thirds majority of the joint session of the National Assembly and Senate. However, political experts believe that the government doesn’t yet have the numbers.

In his address to a joint sitting of the parliament, President Alvi reiterated that free and fair elections remain in demand, suggesting the need for dialogue between the political stakeholders and urging them to end polarization.

No president has been impeached in Pakistan’s political history so far. In 2008, former president Pervez Musharraf came close to such a challenge but tendered his resignation before his political rivals launched proceedings against him.

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