CM Elahi wins ‘Vote of Confidence’ from Punjab Assembly

Lahore: Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi earlier Thursday succeeded in getting a vote of confidence in the Punjab Assembly.

He received 186 votes and will continue working as the Chief Minister of Punjab.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) yesterday started overnight proceedings in the Punjab Assembly for the vote of confidence on Parvez Elahi.

A break was taken in the Punjab Assembly meeting, after which the meeting of January 11 was terminated and the meeting was adjourned till 12:05pm today, however, the meeting resumed after a short break.

After the session resumed, Raja Basharat and Mian Aslam Iqbal presented a resolution for a vote of confidence on Chief Minister Punjab Pervez Elahi. The voting process continued and according to the counting of votes, Pervez Elahi got the golden figure of 186 votes.

Later, the Punjab Assembly meeting was adjourned till 2pm on January 23. The Speaker Sibtain Khan will send a copy of the results of the trust vote to the Governor and the court.

Earlier, according to the attendance registers, 181 members of PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid e Azam (PML-Q) had attended the House.

Opposition to boycott meeting:

When the assembly proceedings for the trust vote started late at night and the agenda was released, the opposition members protested by tearing copies of the agenda and throwing them in the air and boycotted the meeting.

The opposition chanted slogans of ‘Thieves’ in the House, after which the members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) left the Punjab Assembly House.

PML-N rejects ‘Vote of Confidence’:

Coming out of the Punjab Assembly, Rana Sanaullah said that the speaker had stated that the vote of confidence will not be taken today. The proceedings of the Punjab Assembly session are against the constitution, which we do not recognize. A second agenda was issued after 12:00am. They did not fulfill the demands of election.

He claimed that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had given an oath to the disgruntled members that they would not break the assembly. No one would accept whatever number they gave.

Moreover, Malik Ahmad Khan said that these people ‘bulldozed’ the rules of Punjab Assembly. The Speaker rejected my point of objection.

“If they had the required number, they would not have done it. It is the worst incident of assembly’s history,” he added.

Attaullah Tarar said that not appointing a polling agent is malicious, polling agents were not appointed for rigging. “We will prove in the court proceedings that they did not have 186 members,” Tarar claimed.

PTI's claim regarding the number of members:

Earlier, former Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry had said that the target of 187 members had been met, some more members are on the way to attend the meeting.

In a media talk, Deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly Wasiq Qayyum said: “Today we have revealed our full numbers, it was being said that we do not have full numbers, we thought we will show them today by completing the numbers”.

He said that if more than 186 members were counted in the resolution, then the chief minister will get confidence, the members can be counted through the resolution.

Meanwhile, the opposition also claimed that Parvez Elahi did not get majority in the assembly.