Voting for Leader of the House: Punjab PA session postponed till 16th

LAHORE: A crucial session of the Punjab Assembly (PA) to vote for the province’s next chief minister was postponed on Tuesday till April 16, according to a notification issued by the Assembly Secretariat.

The notification, a copy of which is available with Business Recorder said PA Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari moved the Assembly session to the rescheduled date at 11:30 am.

The session was originally scheduled for Wednesday (today) at 11:30 am after Sunday’s session was adjourned without voting to elect the new leader of the house amid ruckus by opposition and government lawmakers.

The provincial Assembly had to elect the new leader of the house, with PML-Q’s PTI-backed Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz, who had secured the support of the PPP and Jahangir Khan Tarin group, expected to go head to head in the race to become the next chief minister.

The PA session took place at the same time when a National Assembly session was to vote on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan. In the end, neither of the two votes took place as the no-trust move in parliament’s lower house was dismissed by NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri, who deemed the resolution in contradiction of Article 5 of the Constitution.

Punjab PA session adjourned without electing new CM

To be elected as chief minister, a candidate will need at least 186 votes in the 371-member house. In the Punjab Assembly, the PTI has 183 lawmakers, PML-Q 10, PML-N 165, PPP seven, five are independent and one belongs to Rah-i-Haq.

Usman Buzdar earlier resigned on directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan who nominated Parvez Elahi, as the new chief executive of the province.

Meanwhile, PTI workers on Monday besieged a hotel in Gulberg where hundreds of PML-N MPA’S were staying besides disgruntled MPA’S of the PTI. Shouting slogans against their party members inside the hotel demanding that PML-N should release their around 20 MPA’S.

Further, opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz claimed that Punjab Assembly speaker might suspend over 40 opposition as well as dissident law makers to prevent them from voting.

Earlier, on April 3, members of the ruling PTI and the opposing PML-N traded barbs during the session, causing it to be adjourned till April 6.

The session, chaired by Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari, had witnessed tensions between the two sides as a group of women lawmakers belonging to the ruling party moved towards the opposition benches for the recovery of three of their colleagues who had switched sides. However, the matter was dealt with in a peaceful manner.

Later, as the deputy speaker started introducing nominees’ names, the said lawmakers had made another attempt, which evolved into a fiery argument, and led to the ruling party using abusive language against the opposition. During this episode, a woman lawmaker belonging to the PML-N was slightly injured. This prompted the deputy speaker to adjourn the session.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022