Courtesy Government of Punjab
Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman on Thursday night issued a notification stating that as Parvez Elahi has not obtained a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly, he has ceased to hold office with immediate effect and his provincial cabinet has been dissolved.
However, the order addressed to the chief secretary of Punjab said that Elahi would continue to hold office until a successor has been elected to the office of the chief minister. “Since C.M. has refrained from obtaining vote of confidence at the appointed day and time therefore he ceases to hold office. Orders issued this evening,” Rehman wrote in a posting on Twitter in which he also shared the order.
According to the order, Elahi had not only failed to secure a vote of confidence on Dec. 21—as directed to do so by the governor—but had also not secured any vote after the lapse of a further 24 hours. As such, it said, the governor was “satisfied” that the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) leader did not command the confidence of the majority of the members of the Punjab Assembly.
Following the issuance of the governor’s orders, Punjab Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal also notified the dissolution of the provincial cabinet. “Parvez Elahi has ceased to hold office of the Chief Minister Punjab with immediate effect,” it said, adding that as a consequence, the provincial cabinet also stood dissolved.
Back-and-forth
Earlier this week, Rehman had directed the Punjab Assembly speaker to summon a session on Wednesday (Dec. 21) at 4 p.m. for Elahi to take a vote of confidence. Speaker Sibtain Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had refused to comply, maintaining that the order was unconstitutional as a new session of the provincial could not be summoned while one was already ongoing. In response, the governor had pointed out that he had not called for a new session, merely a vote, and this could have been conducted in a sitting of the current session.
Rejecting the governor’s notification, the PTI, which is allied with the PMLQ in Punjab, claimed it held no “legal status” and would be challenged in court. Party leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain further said that Elahi and the provincial cabinet would continue to work per normal, adding that the speaker would now send a reference against the governor to President Arif Alvi in a bid to remove him from office.