Governer Punjab Approved Buzdar Resignation
On Friday, Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar accepted Usman Buzdar’s resignation and convened an Assembly session with the purpose of electing a new chief executive officer the next day.
According to a report by Media, the governor’s order states: “In exercise of the powers conferred upon me by Islamabad under Article 109 of Pakistan’s Constitution, I, Mohammad Sarwar, the Punjab Governor, hereby summon the 40th Punjab Provincial Assembly Session to be held on Saturday, April 2, 2022, at 11 a.m.”
It was mandated under Article 130 of the Constitution that a conference be called for the purpose of choosing a new chief minister for the province of Punjab.
In a letter to Punjab Assembly Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti on March 28 2022, a number of important members of Parliament-MPs expressed their dissatisfaction with Buzdar, and on the same day, Buzdar submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Imran Khan.
New CM Candidate Of PTI
The resignation of Buzdar has resulted in the appointment of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as Punjab’s chief minister, who is a candidate of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
A no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan was on the horizon, and the ruling party was rushing to keep its followers on board in the face of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf -PTI becoming the official opposition.
At this point, the PML-Q had assured the government of its support, despite the fact that the party only has 10 provincial and five national constituencies in Punjab and the capital city.
“We will serve the country together as partners,” Elahi was quoted as saying in a statement released by the PML-Q following Buzdar’s departure. As stated in the statement, he also pledged his support for the PML-complete Q’s efforts.
Pakistan Punjab governor accepts Buzdar’s resignation, summons assembly session tomorrow to elect new CM https://t.co/UeponzLPTj #NewsDawn
— News on Pakistan (@87_pakistan) April 1, 2022
Pervez Elahi Efforts For His CM Vote
A candidate for chief minister must get at least 186 votes in the 371-member parliament in order to be elected. According to reports, the PTI’s dissatisfied Jahangir Tareen wing reached out to Elahi in an effort to get the backing of at least this many MPs.
As revealed in a separate piece in the Dawn newspaper, Elahi has purportedly communicated with the Chheena group, a dissident section of the Pakistan Taliban.
According to the newspaper, Elahi, on the other hand, is said to have increased his efforts to win over dissatisfied PML-N members of the province assembly. According to a source, a large number of Pakistani MPs from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), including Faisal Niazi, have called Elahi and assured him of their support for his cause.
PTI has 183 lawmakers, PML-N has 165 legislators, PML-Q has 10, PPP has seven, independents have five, and Rah-i-Haq Party has one representative in the province assembly. Jalil Sharaqpuri, the leader of a group of defectors, has expelled all 165 members of Parliament from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.
He would need at least three independents, one from Rah-i-party Haq’s defectors, and more than 15 defectors from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-PML-N.
PTI Members Measures For No-Trust Vote
At this crucial time, when voting on the election of the Punjab chief minister is due tomorrow and voting on the no-trust resolution is just two days away, the PML’s efforts to assure Elahi’s win coincide with its efforts to prevent Prime Minister Imran from being dismissed prematurely.
Therefore, Elahi has reached out to dissident members of Parliament from the PTI, urging them to support him in the election for the office of chief minister rather than voting for a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Sen. Kamil Ali Agha, a member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told Dawn that the party’s first priority was to ensure that a no-confidence move against the prime minister was defeated. “We’re doing all we can” to maintain the coalition government in office, says the prime minister.
PML-Q leaders have allegedly met Tariq Bashir Cheema, an MNA who has expressed his support for the opposition ahead of the trust vote. They reportedly urged him not to go against the party line. Cheema, a member of the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, said that he was still with them, but he would not commit to voting against the prime minister in any other way.
Opposition CM Candidate Stiil Not Finalized
As for the opposition in Punjab, they haven’t agreed on a candidate for the role of chief minister at this point.
According to a private television channel, MNA Javed Latif, a member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, had previously stated that the leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Hamza Shehbaz, or a disgruntled member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Aleem Khan, could be the joint opposition’s candidate for the position of provincial chief minister.
Following Imran Khan’s resignation, another PML-N source told Dawn that the party “does not want to give two top positions to ‘one party and one family’ in the post-Imran Khan scenario since Hamza Sharif’s father Shehbaz Sharif has been nominated for the prime minister’s position.”
