Senior Vice President of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Fawad Chaudhry said on Saturday that the party will ask Chief Minister Punjab Pervez Elahi to seek a vote of confidence as soon as possible.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore, the former information minister said that the PTI and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) will ensure that the vote of confidence is secured as soon as possible, resulting in They will be able to dissolve PTI. Assemblies
The Lahore High Court (LHC) had, a day earlier, reinstated Elahi as chief minister after the Muslim League-Q leader, a staunch ally of Khan, assured him that he would return to office. Will not dissolve the assembly after recovery.
But in a twist of events, both he and the PTI reiterated their resolve to end the legislative session after the chief minister submitted an affidavit to the LHC that he would not dissolve the assembly.
Fawad said, “We are confident that we have the majority. If we expel the speaker [Sabatin Khan], we have the support of 187 legislators. The chief minister has also promised that he is ready to dissolve the assembly.” Fawad said.
The Senior Vice President further said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan has called a meeting of the party’s senior leadership today in which it has been decided that a vote of confidence will be taken soon.
As part of the plan, a PTI delegation will meet Elahi and his son Munis Elahi to discuss the decision and fix a date for the chief minister to take a vote of confidence.
“The Punjab Assembly will be dissolved after the chief minister takes the vote of confidence. Elahi has the support of 177 PTI legislators and 10 Muslim League (Q) members,” he noted.
Restoration and political upheaval
The political crisis in Punjab does not seem to be abating any time soon as the legislators sitting on the treasury and opposition benches are at loggerheads over who will get the chief minister’s post and who will take over next.
In an attempt to remove the chief minister, the governor – a member of the PML-N – had ordered the chief minister to take a vote of confidence at 4 pm on December 21.
But Punjab Assembly Speaker Sabatin – a PTI leader – declared the order unconstitutional and adjourned the ongoing session till Friday – which resumed today.
In response, the Governor disagreed with the Speaker and rejected his arguments for not calling the meeting. He further said that this decision has no effect on the order to hold the meeting for the vote of trust.
Subsequently, in a notification issued in the wee hours of Friday, the governor de-notified Elahi as chief minister citing his reluctance to take the vote of confidence.
Rehman said that since he felt that Elahi did not command the confidence of the Punjab Assembly, he was de-notifying him as the chief minister and also dissolving the provincial cabinet.
But PTI and Muslim League (Q) alike rejected the notification and approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) against it. The court then reinstated Elahi and asked him not to dissolve the assembly.
While suspending the Governor Punjab’s order till the next hearing, the court also did not make it mandatory for the Chief Minister to take a vote of confidence on the Governor Punjab’s order.
However, it noted that the court’s order “will not prevent the petitioner from taking a vote of confidence voluntarily”.
But the government is still not satisfied with this order and has asked the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the decision of the Lahore High Court.
