ISLAMABAD:According to a statement issued by the President House on Monday, Imran Khan will continue to serve as the prime minister of Pakistan till the appointment of a caretaker premier under Article 224-A (4) of the Constitution.

Article 224(A) deals with the procedure of the appointment of the caretaker prime minister in case the leader of the house and leader of the opposition do not agree on the name of a caretaker prime minister. “The incumbent Prime Minister and the incumbent Chief Minister shall continue to hold office till appointment of the care-taker Prime Minister and the care-taker Chief Minister, as the case may be,” Article 224 (A) reads.

Earlier in the day, the Cabinet Secretariat had issued a notification stating that Imran Khan had “ceased to hold the office of the prime minister of Pakistan with immediate effect”. However, under Article 94 of the Constitution, the president “may ask the Prime Minister to continue to hold office until his successor enters upon the office of Prime Minister”.

It may be recalled that these developments came after the National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri on Sunday disallowed the no-trust vote against prime minister Imran Khan by ruling it to be part of a “foreign conspiracy” and in violation of Article 5 of the Constitution, which demands loyalty to the state.

Just after the Deputy Speaker’s ruling, Prime Minister Imran had appeared on television and announced that he had advised the president to dissolve the National Assembly. Following the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s advice, the President Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday dissolved the National Assembly under Article 58 (1) read with Article 48(1) of the Constitution.