Hamza, Elahi’s nomination papers accepted
LAHORE
The Punjab Assembly will meet today (Sunday) to elect a new Leader of the House after Usman Buzdar resigned in favour of PML-Q’s Pervaiz Elahi. During the session today, the election schedule was issued according to which voting for the chief ministership will be held tomorrow at 3pm. According to details, the nomination papers for the election can be obtained from the provincial assembly secretariat till 5pm Saturday. On Friday, Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar accepted the resignation of Usman Buzdar.
The nomination papers of Hamza Shahbaz and Chaudhry Pervaiz Ellahi for the election of the Punjab chief minister’s slot have been accepted by the secretary Punjab Assembly on Saturday.
Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, currently the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, filed his nomination as the joint opposition’s candidate for the chief ministership of the largest federating unit of Pakistan.
However, Chaudhry Pervaiz Ellahi, the current speaker in the Punjab Assembly, filed his nomination after being nominated by the ruling party PTI and the resignation of CM Usman Buzdar.
The Punjab assembly secretariat after security accepted the nomination papers filed by both the government and opposition candidates. According to sources, a cutthroat contest is expected in the Punjab Assembly tomorrow. In the 371-member 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. The groups of disgruntled PTI MPAs commonly known as the Chheena group and the Tareen Group are being considered a decisive factor in the Punjab chief executive’s election.
Currently, the Chheena group, with their 14 MPAs, sides with the government candidate Chaudhry Pervaiz Ellahi.
Meanwhile, the Tareen group, which reportedly has the support of 17 MPAs, has announced to support opposition candidate Humza Shehbaz Sharif in the CM polls. The session of the Punjab Assembly to choose the new leader of the house will be conducted by deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari. Earlier, the session today held to announce the election schedule began with a delay of over four hours. It is pertinent to mention here that PML-N’s Hamza Shahbaz has emerged as a strong candidate to secure the assembly’s confidence after the support of the Jahangir Khan Tareen group following a meeting between the leaders of the two sides in London.
Once the nomination papers for the chief minister’s office are submitted and the scrutiny process concludes, the candidate who secures the votes of the majority of the total membership of the assembly will be declared the chief minister. But if no candidate secures the votes of the majority in the first poll, the speaker shall conduct a second poll between the candidates who secure the two highest numbers of votes in the first poll. The speaker shall then declare the candidate who secures the majority of votes of the members present as the chief minister. In case during the second poll there is a tie, the speaker shall hold further polls between them until one of them secures the majority of votes of the members present and voting.
