The Punjab Assembly on Monday did not proceed to a trust vote for Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, despite opposition lawmakers challenging the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) leader to prove he continues to have the confidence of the house.
Despite earlier claiming to secure a trust vote for Elahi “far earlier than Jan. 11,” the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf reversed course last week, opting to not include the vote of confidence in the agenda for the day’s session. Last month, Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman had declared that he believed the chief minister no longer enjoyed the support of a majority of the house and must take a vote of confidence after 48 hours—on Dec. 21—to prove otherwise.
The PA speaker, however, refused to summon a session for the vote, while Elahi maintained that the governor’s direction had no legal standing. After the governor de-notified the chief minister over his failure to get a trust vote, Elahi challenged the decision in the Lahore High Court, which issued a stay order against the de-notification and fixed Jan. 11 as the next date for hearing the case. In its order, the LHC barred Elahi from dissolving the Punjab Assembly prior to the next hearing.
The PTI and PMLQ coalition’s delay in taking a vote of confidence has triggered rumors of it no longer having the support of all their MPAs, with the opposition claiming several have now sided with it and would not vote in Elahi’s favor.
In Monday’s session, which was also attended by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, PTI Secretary General Asad Umar and Special Assistant to the P.M. Attaullah Tarar, opposition and treasury lawmakers faced off, with government MPAs chanting slogans against the interior minister and the opposition surrounding the speaker’s dais after ripping up copies of the agenda.
Speaking on a point of order, PMLN lawmaker Rana Mashhood claimed the session was in contravention of court orders and questioned why the members of the Punjab cabinet were not present. Claiming that the government was now in the minority, he challenged it to prove its mandate. In response, the PA speaker said the session could not be described as “unconstitutional” while the matter was sub-judice. He also claimed that Elahi would seek a vote of confidence at an appropriate time.
Amidst the rancor, the government presented 22 bills, of which 21 were passed. These included the Punjab Public Defender Service Bill, 2023; Punjab Food Authority Amendment Bill, 2023; Punjab Alternate Dispute Resolution Amendment Bill, 2023; Punjab Undesirable Cooperative Societies Dissolution Amendment Bill, 2023; The Public Sector Universities Amendment Bill, 2022. The University of Attock Bill, 2023 was referred to the Standing Committee on Higher Education.
The opposition has claimed that the speaker passed the bills without counting the available votes, maintaining that they had the majority.