Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that he will seek a vote of confidence from Parliament on Saturday and is ready to sit in the Opposition if he fails to prove the majority.

He lashed out at the grand Opposition alliance for "making a mockery of democracy" and said that he will never let the corrupt off the hook.

“I am going to take a vote of confidence from the National Assembly. No matter if I sit in Opposition or am out of the Assembly, I will not spare anyone of you (Opposition leaders) until you return the money of this country,” he said.

In his address to the nation, Pakistan PM said that the vote of confidence would be an open ballot in which members of his party and his allies were welcome to vote against him if they no longer had confidence in him.

Khan also lashed out at the Election Commission of Pakistan which he said failed to stop corruption in the elections. "You (ECP) discredited democracy, you damaged the morality of the nation by doing nothing to stop vote-buying."

The development comes a day after the ruling party’s candidate and Finance Minister Hafeez Sheikh lost a hotly contested election for a seat in the Senate, or upper house of Pakistan's bicameral parliament, against Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate and former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Meanwhile, Opposition parties have called for a dissolution of the Imran Khan government and fresh elections.

(With inputs from PTI and Reuters)

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Mar 4, 2021 9:35 PM IST