The PDM seems to have thwarted the danger of the provincial assembly being dissolved prematurely, but it seems the matter will end up in a court, allowing the judges to have the final say.
By Ahmer Kureishi & Naveed Naqvi
ISLAMABAD: In a widely anticipated move, Governor Punjab Baligh ur Rehman has proclaimed that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is no more the Chief Minister Punjab because of his failure to secure a mandatory vote of confidence from the Assembly, but ordered him to continue in office until a new chief minister is elected.
Signed at 1600 hours on Thursday, a gubernatorial order to this effect was shared from the verified Twitter handle of the Governor at 12:42 am Friday.
Earlier, on December 19, the Governor had ordered the then CM to secure a vote of confidence at 1600 hours on Wednesday, December 21.
Under Article 130(7) of the Constitution, the Governor has the authority to order the CM to take a vote of confidence if he has sufficient grounds to believes the latter has lost the confidence of the majority in the house.
The order notes how Elahi “refrained from” securing a vote of confidence at 1600 hours Wednesday, as required by Rule 22(7) of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, 1997.
It further noted that Elahi “still has not done so even after the lapse of another twenty-four hours”.
“I am satisfied that he does not command the confidence of the majority of the members of the Punjab Assembly, and therefore ceases to hold his office with immediate effect”, says the order. “In consequence of above, the Provincial Cabinet stands dissolved forthwith.”
The same order, however, goes on to ask the former Chief Minister “to continue to hold office until his successor enters upon the office of the Chief Minister.”
This is the latest twist in an ongoing power struggle between the factions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Punjab is the most populous province of Pakistan and its provincial assembly is the largest and oldest legislature in the country. The province also sends more member to the National Assembly than any other federating unit.
This is the second attempt by PM Sharif’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition to dislodge Elahi, widely seen as a staunch Khan ally, from the provincial hot seat.
The first attempt, that came soon after the PDM ousted Khan this April, was beaten back after lengthy settlement brokered by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) followed by a controversial ruling by the same bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial himself.
The federal government filed a review appeal against that ruling, which has since been pending.
The latest attempt to oust Elahi came after Khan announced his plans to have the CM dissolve the assembly on December 23.
On the face of it, the latest order by the Governor has given the PDM coalition the upper hand of the struggle for the control of the province. It has also defused Khan’s threat by stripping Elahi of the power to dissolve the provincial assembly.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seems determined to resist the order, although it is far from clear what legal or constitutional grounds they have for such course of action.
Six minutes after the Governor’s Tweet, Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, a key lieutenant of Khan, shot back on Urdu-language Tweet saying the Governor’s notification has no legal standing, and that his party is starting the proceedings to remove the governor from his office by sending a reference against him to the President.
If the impasse persists, the dispute is likely to land in the domain the higher judiciary once more, allowing the top judges to have the final say in the matter by adjudicating the political fate of Pakistan’s most important political unit.
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