Date will be decided soon after meeting between PTI delegation and Punjab chief minister, says PTI leader
\n Islamabad
\nPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said Saturday that the party would ask Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi to take a vote of confidence as soon as possible.
\nIn a press conference in Lahore, the ex-information minister said the PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) would ensure that the vote of confidence is attained at the earliest, which would, in turn, enable them to dissolve the assemblies.
\nThe Lahore High Court (LHC) had, a day earlier, reinstated Elahi as the chief minister after the PML-Q leader \u2014 a strong ally of Khan \u2014 assured it that he would not dissolve the assembly once restored to office.
\nBut in a turn of events, he and the PTI both reaffirmed their resolve to disband the legislative moments after the chief minister had submitted an undertaking to the LHC that he would not dissolve the assembly.
\n\u201cWe are confident that we have the majority. If we exclude Speaker [Sibtain Khan], then we have the support of 187 lawmakers. The chief minister has also promised that is ready to dissolve the assembly,\u201d Fawad said.
\nThe senior vice president added that PTI Chairman Imran Khan had summoned a meeting of the party\u2019s senior leadership today, where it was decided that the vote of confidence will take place at the earliest.
\nAs part of the plan, a PTI delegation will meet Elahi and his son \u2014 Moonis Elahi \u2014 to discuss the decision and fix a date for when the chief minister will take a vote of confidence.
\n\u201cThe Punjab Assembly will be dissolved after the chief minister takes a vote of confidence. Elahi has the support of 177 PTI lawmakers and 10 PML-Q members,\u201d he noted.
\nRestoration and political turmoil
\nThe political crisis in Punjab does not seem to be ceased soon as lawmakers sitting on treasury and opposition benches appeared at loggerheads over who will get the CM\u2019s Office and who will take it over next.
\nIn his bid to oust the chief minister, the governor \u2014 a member of the PML-N \u2014 had ordered the CM to take a vote of confidence at 4pm on December 21.
\nBut Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain \u2014 a PTI leader \u2014 termed the order against the Constitution and adjourned an ongoing session till Friday \u2014 which resumed today.
\nIn response, the governor disagreed with the speaker and rejected his reasonings for not summoning a session. He added that the ruling has \u201cno bearing\u201d on the order to hold a session for the confidence vote.
\nFollowing this, in a notification issued in the wee hours of Friday, the governor de-notified Elahi as the chief minister, citing his reluctance to take a vote of confidence.
\nRehman said that since he believes that Elahi does not command the confidence of the Punjab Assembly, he was de-notifying him as the chief minister and also dissolving the provincial cabinet.
\nBut the PTI and PML-Q alike rejected the notification and moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) against it. The court then reinstated Elahi and asked him to not dissolve the assembly.
\nThe court suspended the governor\u2019s order till the next hearing and also did not make it compulsory for the chief minister to take a vote of confidence on the Punjab governor\u2019s orders.
\nHowever, it noted that the court\u2019s order \u201cwill not preclude the petitioner from taking a vote of confidence on his own accord\u201d.
\nBut the government is still not satisfied with the order and has asked the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of the LHC\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Date will be decided soon after meeting between PTI delegation and Punjab chief minister, says PTI leader Islamabad Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said Saturday that the party would ask Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi to take a vote of confidence as soon as possible. In a press conference in Lahore, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[4080],"class_list":{"0":"post-303286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-fawad-chaudary"},"yoast_head":"\n