PML-N tells MPAs to reach Lahore today

Meeting to chalk out course of action on chief minister’s vote of confidence

LAHORE:

The PML-N has directed all its members of the Punjab Assembly to reach Lahore on January 2 in connection with the chief minister’s vote of confidence and no-trust motions against the speaker and his deputy.

Party sources said the PML-N Punjab parliamentary party’s meeting would be held in the first week of January, chaired by its chief, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

In the meeting, the issues of Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi’s vote of confidence as well as the no-trust motions against the speaker and his deputy would be discussed.

The sources said PM Shehbaz would inform the party’s lawmakers about the plan of action in the provincial assembly.

They added that suggestions on the political situation would also be sought from the party’s members of the provincial assembly.

Punjab is in a constitutional crisis at the moment.

Though the Lahore High Court’s recent order has provided an opportunity to all sides to review their political agendas, the ongoing political turmoil seems to be far from over. Punjab’s ruling parties, the PTI and PML-Q, wish to dissolve the assembly to force snap polls in the country.

In response, the ruling alliance at the Centre is simultaneously throwing a gauntlet to the rulers in Punjab to go ahead with its plan while carrying out all efforts to stop the assembly from being dissolved.

The country, especially Punjab, has been embroiled in a political and constitutional crisis since November 26 when PTI chief Imran Khan announced at a public gathering that the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assemblies would be dissolved in the coming days.

Initially, the government side said that it would go to any limit to stop the dissolution from happening but then shifted gears and started challenging the PTI to go ahead with the plan, announcing that elections would be held in two provinces in case the party really went for it.

The PTI leadership too delayed the plan for the dissolution of the assemblies for weeks as the PTI chief continued to meet with party members and lawmakers to finalise the plan.

Fast forward to December 17, Imran, while sitting along with chief ministers of Punjab and K-P, announced that the assemblies would be dissolved on December 23.

He did not elaborate on why he delayed the decision for another week when the parties had reached the decision that assemblies would surely be dissolved.
When the opponents and people started questioning the unusual delay, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry was quick to incorporate that one week’s time was sought for finalising the strategy for the verification of the resignations of PTI MNAs pending in the National Assembly since April this year.

With the announcement of dissolving the assemblies and conveying that the party legislators were finally ready to appear before the NA speaker after a delay of eight months, the PTI leadership thought that soon it would achieve its target of forcing general elections in the country and its winning streak would help it win if not sweep the elections.

However, the ruling alliance in the Centre, being the opposition in the Punjab Assembly, threw a spanner in the works.

On one hand, it submitted a no-trust motion against CM Elahi to the speaker of the provincial legislature, and on the other, Punjab Governor Baligur Rehman directed the chief minister to take a vote of confidence from the assembly on December 21.

The PTI and PML-Q defied the order and defused the move through a ruling of Punjab Assembly speaker, who declared the governor’s direction was against the assembly rules as well as the Constitution.

In return, the governor ruled the speaker’s ruling unconstitutional and de-notified the Punjab CM for failing to take a vote of confidence from the provincial assembly on December 21 on his order.

The PML-N then withdrew the no-confidence motion against the Punjab chief minister, saying it was going ahead with the move as Elahi was no longer the CM after the governor de-notified him.

However, the party’s chief whip Khalil Tahir Sindhu said their no-confidence motions against the Punjab Assembly speaker and his deputy remained in place.
The governor’s de-notification order was swiftly challenged before the LHC, which restored Elahi as the Punjab CM after taking an undertaking from him that he would not send a summary for the dissolution of the assembly to the governor before the next date of hearing – January 11.