PMLN lets Pervaiz Elahi evade no-trust

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly Speaker Ch Pervaiz Elahi escaped unscathed from the no-confidence motion for reasons best known to the movers and shakers of the Punjab PMLN.

Sources in the PMLN claimed that the provincial hierarchy of the party itself provided the chance to Ch Pervaiz Elahi from getting out of the trouble by stopping their MPAs at 90 Shahrah-e-Quaid-i-Azam.

Sources said the parliamentary party meeting of the PMLN was held at 90 Shahrah-e-Quaid-i-Azam and at around 9.30 am all the 197 members of the party and its allies were present there. They said during the meeting Hamza Shehbaz as well as Atta Tarar told the members that Ch Pervaiz Elahi has called many goons from Gujrat who have captured the assembly building.

Later, Atta Tarar, Muhammad Ahmed, Awais Leghari and PPP’s Murtaza Hassan left the venue and reached outside the assembly and started protesting. Talking to media they spoke against Pervaiz Elahi and his ‘unconstitutional steps’.

On the other hand, the remaining MPAs were still sitting at 90 Shahrah-e-Quaid-i-Azam, which is in front of the Punjab Assembly building and were asking the leadership that what they were doing here and when they will go to the assembly building.

Around 12.20 pm the MPAs were asked to reach the assembly building and they along with the movers of the no-confidence against Ch Pervaiz Elahi went inside the assembly building but nobody stopped them from entering the assembly building.

Sources said when they reached inside the assembly, the session almost ended and the resolution against the Punjab Assembly speaker was rejected due to absence of the movers. Sources said after this incident, trolling of six MPAs who moved the no- confidence against Ch Pervaiz Elahi started on social media that MPA Samiullah Khan didn’t appear in the house and he was also labelled traitor among the PMLN party.

PMLN’s leader Azma Bukhari tweeted “It is a pity that this was left to be heard after coming to power. When the party asked us to go to the house, we went. Ask those who were making these decisions, heart- broken today, four years of Pervaiz Elahi these two traitors suffered”. She also shared the picture of the resolution and asked that whether the other signatories of the no-confidence motion were also traitors or this medal was just for her and her husband.

Sources said so far it was not understandable that why the PMLN provincial leadership ‘deliberately’ stopped their members from going into the house in time and what benefit will they get from this move.

The News tried to contact PMLN leaders Atta Tarar, Awais Leghari and Malik Ahmed but none of them attended the calls. Text messages were also sent to them but they didn’t call back till the filing of this report.