Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the dissolution of Parliament and suspension of the no-confidence vote against the country's Prime Minister Imran Khan were illegal, dealing a serious blow to the embattled premier's bid to remain in office.
Khan's coalition lost its majority in the national assembly last week, but he avoided being dismissed when the deputy speaker blocked a no-confidence motion against him and President Arif Alvi dissolved the Parliament ordering fresh elections.
"All actions taken are of no legal effect and quashed," the Supreme Court said after four days of hearings on the matter. "The national assembly continues to remain in session," it added, with officials saying it would sit again Saturday.
The opposition claims it has 172 votes in the 342-seat house needed to oust Khan after several members of his own party and a key coalition partner defected.
The court's judgement was broader than expected after the chief justice said earlier this week they would only rule on the legality of the no-confidence motion being blocked.
The court said that the decision was unanimous. Opposition supporters gathered in the capital to celebrate the verdict with packed cars racing through the streets and horns blaring.
Dozens of heavily armed police backed by paramilitary rangers guarded Pakistan’s stately white marble Supreme Court building.
Khan, one of the world's top cricketers before he turned to politics, said he would call a Cabinet meeting Friday and address the nation in the evening. "I have always & will continue to fight for Pak till the last ball," he tweeted.
"It's an unfortunate decision," Khan's ally and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told The Associated Press (AP) following the unanimous ruling by the five-member Supreme Court. He warned that "instability will increase and I see no end to the crisis."
Shahbaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and likely to be the next prime minister, said the court's decision "has saved Pakistan and the constitution of Pakistan."
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Zardari Bhutto, who had joined forces with Sharif to oust Khan, tweeted: "Democracy is the best revenge."
During Khan's bid to dissolve Parliament, Chaudhry accused the opposition of "disloyalty to the state" by working with a foreign power to bring about a "regime change."
The Deputy Parliamentary Speaker Qasim Suri cited Chaudhry's allegation to toss out the no-confidence resolution, but the Supreme Court ruled that Suri's arguments lacked legal basis.
Simultaneously, Khan asked the presidency, a largely ceremonial office also held by a loyalist, to dissolve the assembly.
Alvi has already told the feuding factions to nominate candidates for interim prime minister and asked the country's election commission to fix a date for a new national ballot. However, the opposition refused to cooperate.
There had been high hopes for Khan when he was elected in 2018 on a promise of sweeping away decades of entrenched corruption and cronyism, but he struggled to maintain support with soaring inflation, a feeble rupee and crippling debt.
On Thursday, the Pakistani rupee was trading at a historic low of 190 to the U.S. dollar, and the central bank raised the key interest rate by 250 basis points to 12.25% in the biggest hike in over a quarter of a century.
Economic policymakers will want to see the crisis resolved as quickly as possible. Pakistan is in the middle of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, which it desperately needs to shore up hard currency reserves.
Pakistan has been wracked by political crises for much of its 75-year existence, and no prime minister has ever completed a full term.
Khan has blown anti-U.S. sentiment into the political atmosphere by saying the opposition had colluded with Washington. The 67-year-old claimed that Western powers wanted him removed because he would not stand with them against Russia and China.
The Supreme Court is ostensibly independent, but rights activists argue previous benches have been used by civilian and military administrations to do their bidding throughout Pakistan's history.
The military appears to be keeping out of the current fray, but there have been four coups since independence in 1947, and the country has spent more than 30 years under army rule.
The opposition has said it wants early elections, but only after delivering a political defeat to Khan and passing legislation it says is required to ensure the next polls are free and fair. On Thursday, Pakistan's election commission said that the earliest it could hold the ballot was October.