LAHORE: The government passed 21 bills in the Punjab Assembly amid protest by the opposition that was demanding Chief Minister Parvez Elahi first take a vote of confidence as per the directions of the governor.

Neither the chief minister took the trust vote nor was the matter on the agenda for the day.

As proceedings of the house resumed around three hours later than its scheduled time of 2pm after a break of 16 days on Monday, the opposition parties, the PML-N and PPP, demanded that Parvez Elahi should take a trust vote before any other business of the assembly.

Notwithstanding shouting by the opposition benches when Speaker Sibtain Khan took up Question Hour, the PML-N and PPP MPAs assembled before the dais of the speaker and began raising slogans, demanding that Mr Elahi must take a vote of confidence. They also flew paper planes made of copies of the agenda for the day.

The treasury also responded to the sloganeering of the opposition and the situation led to mayhem in the house. The ruling party’s MPA Rana Shehbaz demanded the arrest of Attaullah Tarar, the special assistant to the prime minister, who was sitting in the visitor’s gallery as the PML-N leader was wanted by the Privileges Committee of the assembly.

PTI leader Asad Umar, Federal Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and other PML-N leaders were also present in the gallery.

Opp demands Elahi take trust vote; terms assembly proceedings illegal

Amid protest by the opposition, the treasury introduced and passed 21 bills though PML-N MPA Rana Mashhood asserted that the proceedings were illegal as the cabinet stood dissolved as per orders of the governor. He claimed that the Lahore High Court (LHC) had stayed the governor’s orders only on the petition of Chief Minister Parvez Elahi and the stay excluded the cabinet.

The chair postponed the house proceedings for Tuesday afternoon (today).

Rana Sana told the media that had Mr Elahi got the support of the required number of lawmakers (186 out of 371), he would have taken a vote of confidence by now. He claimed that the ruling coalition of PTI and PML-Q enjoyed support of only 175 MPAs while the opposition had 179 and this number would swell to 180 on Tuesday when an ailing legislator of the opposition would join the proceedings. He demanded Mr Elahi resign as the CM for losing support of a simple majority in the house and that a new parliamentary leader should be elected through run-off election.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parvez Elahi met Speaker Sibtain Khan and provincial ministers Basharat Raja and Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed at his office to discuss the political situation and the number game in the Punjab Assembly.

The CM said that the opposition was daydreaming of clinching power in Punjab despite the fact that it did not have enough numbers. He denied reports of rifts among the ruling coalition and pledged that the PML-Q and PTI would remain allies.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2023