PAKISTAN’S parliament was dissolved today as a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Imran Khan was blocked.

Early elections will be held after the deputy speaker declared the vote, which Mr Khan was expected to lose, unconstitutional.

“You will decide the future of this nation, not the corrupt or the foreigners,” Mr Khan said in a televised address, telling citizens to “prepare for elections.”

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had earlier claimed that Pakistani officials had been told of “an operation for a regime change by a foreign government.”

Mr Khan had implicated the US in such a plot last Thursday in a state broadcast. 

“America has – oh, not America but a foreign country I can’t name. I mean from a foreign country, we received a message,” he said.

The Prime Minister said it had been made clear that relations between Pakistan and the US would improve if he lost the no confidence vote.

Pakistan was told that it would face consequences if he was not removed from power, he claimed. 

Washington has denied sending “a threatening memo” to Mr Khan over his failure to support US foreign policy and refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He earlier incurred Washington’s ire by referring to the Taliban’s victory over US occupation as a “liberation” for Afghanistan.

On Friday Mr Chaudhry claimed that security agencies had reported the discovery of a plot to assassinate Mr Khan.

Leader of Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party Faisal Vawda also said there was a conspiracy to kill Mr Khan over his refusal to “sell the country” last week. 

But the opposition poured scorn on the suggestions and said it was lodging a legal challenge. 

“The united opposition is not leaving Parliament. Our lawyers are on their way to Supreme Court. 

“We call on all institutions to protect, uphold, defend and implement the constitution of Pakistan,” Pakistan People’s Party leader Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari said.