Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan will announce his next course of action in a “major” address tomorrow (Thursday), a senior party leader said.
At a press conference in Lahore on Wednesday, PTI’s focal person for economics Hamad Azhar said the party would hold a “huge” demonstration outside the Punjab Governor House at 5 pm to register its protest.
The political situation in Punjab is tense as Governor Balighur Rehman – who belongs to the Pakistan Muslim League (N) – called a meeting today for a vote of confidence on Chief Minister Punjab Pervez Elahi.
But defying these instructions, Punjab Assembly Speaker Sabatin Khan – a PTI member – termed the order unconstitutional and adjourned the ongoing session till Friday.
In response, Home Minister Rana Sanaullah threatened that the government would issue a declaration at 4pm today – which it hasn’t yet – to remove Elahi as chief minister.
The PTI has decided to strongly oppose any move by the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led opposition and has called for a protest outside the Governor’s House.
“A circus has been set up across the country,” Azhar criticized the opposition, including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, for allegedly engaging in horse-trading.
PML-Q MPs supported Chief Minister Elahi.
In the light of the no-confidence vote, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) votes are crucial and the opposition was eyeing their support through PML-Q chief Chaudhary Shujaat.
However, a statement issued by the Muslim League (Q) said that the party’s legislators have assured their full support for the incumbent Chief Minister Elahi.
The party statement said that in the meeting presided over by the Chief Minister and Muslim League (Q) parliamentary leader Sajid Bhatti, the members gave full authority to the Chief Minister of Punjab for all decisions and vowed to remain united under his leadership.
If a no-confidence motion is presented in the provincial assembly, the members agreed to vote in favor of the chief minister, speaker and deputy speaker.
In this regard, while addressing the press conference along with Azhar, PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry also said that all MPs of Muslim League Q have supported Chief Minister Elahi, Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
“We have the numbers,” Chaudhry said, noting that the combined membership of the PTI and PML-Q is 187.
Letter was sent to remove Governor.
Meanwhile, Punjab Minister for Environmental Protection and Parliamentary Affairs Muhammad Basharat Raja said that Speaker PA Sabtain has sent a letter to President Arif Alvi to remove the current governor.
The former law minister said that under Article 101(3), the President has the power to remove the Governor.
Basharat said that in the letter written for dismissal, the speaker has also complained about the behavior of the governor.
“They have also pointed out the unconstitutional steps of the governor and requested the president to ensure that the governor does not take any more unconstitutional steps”.
