Islamabad, December 23
Pakistan’s Punjab province Governor Balighur Rehman had de-notified Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as the chief minister in the early hours of Friday, according to Dawn.
Earlier on Monday, the governor had ordered Elahi to take a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly on Wednesday by 4 pm but the speaker Sibtain Khan disposed of Rehman’s order, saying that the instructions were “against the Constitution and Rules of Procedure”, and also adjourned the court till Friday.
After the anticipation of a day and a half, the order of Elahi’s de-notification was made public a little after midnight, even though the document stated that it was prepared at 4 pm on Thursday.
Sharing the papers of de-notification on his Twitter account, the Punjab governor said, “Since CM has refrained from obtaining Vote of Confidence at the appointed day and time therefore he ceases to hold office. Orders issued this evening.”
The notification reads, “Consequent to the facts that Ch. Pervaiz Elahi, Chief Minister Punjab ‘refrained from obtaining the vote of confidence at 1600 hrs yesterday, in line with an Order under Article 130(7) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, issued under my hand on 19th December 2022, in line with Rule 22(7) of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, 1997, and that he still has not done so even after the lapse of another twenty-four hours, | am satisfied that he does not command the confidence of the majority of the members of Punjab Assembly, and therefore ceases to hold his office with immediate effect.”
“In terms of Article 133 of the Constitution, Ch. Pervaiz Elahi, former Chief Minister of Punjab is hereby asked to continue to hold office until his successor enters upon the office of the Chief Minister,” it added.
The adjournment was viewed by the ruling PDM as a deliberate attempt to skip the vote, leading to frenzied speculation and warnings from federal government ministers like Rana Sanaullah that Elahi would be de-notified.
Earlier, on Thursday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders all but confirmed that the provincial assemblies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab were unlikely to be dissolved on December 23 (Friday), the date previously given by party chairman Imran Khan and that the matter would extend into January because of a constitutional crisis in Punjab.
Last week, former Prime Minister Imran Khan announced that his governments in the two provinces will dissolve assemblies to pave the way for fresh elections.
However, Punjab Assembly (PA) Speaker and PTI leader Sibtain Khan hinted today that the dissolution may be extended till the first week of January because of the vote of confidence and no-trust motion against CM Elahi.
