Imran Khan was ousted as Pakistan’s Prime Minister in a no-confidence vote late on Saturday night, following a nearly 14-hour standoff between the Opposition and Khan’s ruling party that started on Saturday morning.

Opposition parties were able to secure 174 votes in the 342-member House in support of the no-confidence motion. There were just a few legislators of Khan’s ruling party present for the process.

The vote means Khan will no longer hold office and the parliament will now elect a new Prime Minister and government.

Khan is the first Prime Minister of Pakistan to be voted out on a no-trust motion. No Prime Minister in the country has completed their five-year term.

The voting came after the country’s powerful army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, met Khan, two sources said.

Speaker Asad Qaisar, a member of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, who had adjourned the House three times on Saturday, announced his resignation late in the night, heightening the drama in the chamber.

A start to the voting, to be held on Saturday on court orders, was announced minutes later by a legislator from the Opposition, who took over the empty Speaker’s seat.

Khan held an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Saturday night where it was decided that he would not resign, sources said.

His allies had blocked the no-confidence motion last week and dissolved the lower House of Parliament, prompting the country’s Supreme Court to intervene and allow the vote to go through. The Prime Minister’s supporters claim there is a foreign conspiracy to oust him.

Khan, 69, surged to power in 2018 with the military’s support, but recently lost his parliamentary majority when allies quit his coalition government.

Opposition parties say he has failed to revive an economy battered by Covid-19 or fulfil promises to make Pakistan a corruption-free, prosperous nation respected on the world stage.

The cricket star turned politician has vowed to “struggle” against any move to replace him.

The editor-in-chief of the Friday Times, Najam Sethi, said Khan seemed bent on defying the orders of the Supreme Court.

“That means he is either on a politically suicidal path or is being egged on to continue resistance in the expectation of last minute support/intervention from elements in the Miltablishment,” he said, referring to the military.

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that the Islamabad High Court was set to take up a petition on Saturday night asking the court to restrain Khan from de-notifying General Bajwa as the chief of army staff.

Speaking to a group of journalists after the cabinet meeting, Khan said: “There was neither any talk of dismissing the army chief nor was this on the cards.”

Before Saturday’s session was adjourned, Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, expected to become Prime Minister if Khan is ousted, had urged Speaker Qaiser to ensure the vote was carried out as a matter of priority.

The speaker said he would implement the court order “in true letter and spirit”.