LAHORE
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif restrained on Thursday Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman from de-notifying Chief Minister Parvez Elahi.
The development comes after the legal team of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) advised the party to refrain from de-notifying Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi as the matter can be challenged in court.
The legal team presented a suggestion during a meeting held at the Governor House. The meeting was attended by the senior leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The legal team said “how the chief minister could be denotified, considering the fact that he did not refuse to take the vote of confidence.” On the legal team’s recommendation, the prime minister has stopped Punjab governor from denotifying CM Elahi for now and ordered more consultation on the matter. Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman, Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, Prime Minister’s Advisor Malik Ahmed Khan, Federal Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, and other important leaders participated.
In the meeting, the PML-N leadership considered the constitutional option regarding the de-notification of the Punjab Chief Minister. The meeting also discussed the overall political situation of Punjab while the security of the Governor’s House has been tightened and more security forces including Frontier Constabulary (FC) arrived outside there.
It is worth mentioning that Punjab Governor has termed the PA speaker’s ruling ‘unconstitutional’ against his direction to the Chief Minister to take a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly. Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi had not taken the vote of confidence as per the direction so now the Punjab Governor is considering using the constitutional option of de-notifying him.
The political crisis in Punjab has intensified as Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Thursday that Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman is likely to issue the notification to denotify Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi today.
Talking to media outside Punjab Governor House, Rana Sanaullah said that Pervaiz Elahi was no more the executive of the province as he did not take vote of confidence as asked by Governor.
