Punjab Assembly session on 9th

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan has summoned provincial assembly session on January 9 (Monday), according to the assembly secretariat.

“The Punjab Assembly session, which was scheduled to be held on January 11, will now be held at 2pm on January 9,” the notification said. On Dec 22, PA Speaker Sibtain Khan adjourned the session of Punjab Assembly without any proceedings amid ruckus by the opposition, local media reported.

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is likely to take the vote of confidence from the provincial assembly next week, it emerged earlier. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), meanwhile, withdrew its no-confidence motion against the speaker and deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly.

Sources privy to the matter said that the PMLN withdrew the no-confidence motion for failing to change the order of numbers in the Punjab Assembly., while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’ (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PMLQ) alliance had a clear edge.

Despite the efforts of former president Asif Ali Zardari and the PMLN, the number game was not completed, and the no-confidence motion against the speaker and deputy speaker was withdrawn in the name of a change of strategy for failing to change the order of numbers in the Punjab Assembly.

Sources within the PMLN told a media outlets that the opposition put complete focus on the vote of confidence against the Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi instead of the PA speaker and deputy speaker. Two weeks back, Governor Baligh-ur-Rehman had denotified the chief minister for not seeking the vote of confidence which was challenged by Pervaiz Elahi in the Lahore High Court (LHC). A five-member bench of the high court heard the petition.

The LHC had suspended the governor’s de-notification order after getting assurance from Pervaiz Elahi to not dissolve the Punjab Assembly.

The LHC judge had remarked that the court will not bind the Punjab CM to get the vote of confidence. However, the chief minister will be allowed to take his own decision to prove his majority in the provincial assembly. The LHC bench then issued notices to the attorney general and advocate general for January 11 and adjourned the hearing.