Crucial Punjab Assembly session adjourned till June 6

A session of the Punjab Assembly (PA) scheduled for today by Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has been postponed till June 6, Aaj News reported.

The session was adjourned within six minutes of it starting after a delay of two hours.

Earlier on Sunday, the Punjab police on Sunday arrested DG Parliamentary Affairs Rai Mumtaz Hussain Babar, ahead of today's hurriedly-called session, which was initially scheduled to be held at 12:30 pm.

Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi condemned the arrest and claimed that the police action was carried out on the orders of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

ECP de-seats PTI dissident MPAs who voted for Hamza as Punjab CM

"This action of the government represents fascism,” he said.

Elahi said that the police action against the officials of the Punjab Assembly was an indication that the provincial government was "panicking".

"The unconstitutional and fake government is taking steps against the Constitution and law," he said.

Elahi on Saturday rescheduled the assembly session after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-seated the 25 dissident PTI MPAs who had voted for Hamza Shehbaz against their party's direction. The ECP in its verdict said that the parliamentarians had defected from the party.

Votes of dissident lawmakers will not be counted, SC announces verdict on presidential reference

“​In exercise of the powers vested in me under rule 25(b) of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997, I, Parvez Elahi, Speaker, Provincial Assembly of Punjab hereby order that the next sitting of the 40th Session of Punjab Assembly will now be held on Sunday 22nd May 2022 at 12:30 p.m. in Assembly Chambers, Lahore instead of Monday, 30th May 2022 at 01:00 p.m,” read the notification.

A vote of no-confidence against Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari is also part of the day's agenda.

On Friday, the Lahore High Court issued notices to Hamza and others regarding petitions challenging his election as CM.

A petition filed by Elahi challenged Hamza’s election, saying that the PML-N leader had failed to secure the requisite number of votes in light of the Supreme Court’s verdict that the votes of defecting lawmakers would not be counted.

Earlier, the PTI had also moved the high court, requesting it to declare Hamza’s election illegal and restrain Hamza from working in the capacity of CM.