Pakistan's parliament removed Imran Khan as prime minister through a vote of no confidence on Sunday, setting the stage for opposition parties to form the next government.
The vote was held after the country's Supreme Court on Thursday overturned Mr Khan's bid to dismiss the no-confidence motion and dissolve parliament on April 3.
Opposition parties were able to secure a majority 174 votes in the 342-member house in support of the no-confidence motion, the House Speaker said.
The announcement of the vote's result came shortly before 1am (8pm GMT) after multiple adjournments in the lower house caused by members of Mr Khan's party, who said there was a foreign conspiracy to oust the cricket star-turned-politician.
It was not immediately clear when a new prime minister would be chosen, but Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif was almost certain to be picked to lead the nuclear-armed nation of 220 million people.
"We will put a balm on the wounds of this nation," Mr Sharif said immediately after the result was announced.
Mr Sharif, the younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has a reputation as an effective administrator.
Parliamentary elections are not due until August 2023. However, the opposition has said it wants early elections, but only after it has delivered a political defeat to Mr Khan and passed legislation it says is required to ensure the next polls are free and fair.
Mr Khan was widely expected to lose the vote after defections among members of his ruling coalition and MPs from his Tehreek-e-Insaf Party in recent weeks.
He surged to power in 2018 with the military's support, but recently lost his parliamentary majority when allies quit his coalition government. There were also signs he had lost the support of the military, analysts said.
The military viewed Mr Khan and his conservative agenda favourably when he won the election, but that support waned after a falling-out over the appointment of the country's next spy chief and the economic troubles.
"They [the military] don't want to be seen as supporting him and be blamed for his failures," opposition leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said. "They've pulled their support."
Opposition parties say Mr Khan 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.
No Pakistani prime minister has completed their full term since independence in 1947, although Mr Khan is the first to be removed through a confidence vote.
FA Cup fifth round draw
Sheffield Wednesday v Manchester City
Reading/Cardiff City v Sheffield United
Chelsea v Shrewsbury Town/Liverpool
West Bromwich Albion v Newcastle United/Oxford United
Leicester City v Coventry City/Birmingham City
Northampton Town/Derby County v Manchester United
Southampton/Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City
Portsmouth v Arsenal
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Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
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The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
