Pakistan: No-confidence motion against Punjab Assembly Speaker dismissed
May 23, 2022
Lahore [Pakistan], May 23 : The no-confidence motion against Pakistan's Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi was dismissed on Sunday after Pakistan Muslim League-N MPA (Members of Provincial Assembly) Sami Ullah Khan, who had filed the motion against him, failed to show up.
As the result, the session of the assembly has been postponed till June 6, Geo News reported.
The session was chaired by Waseem Khan Badozai. As the assembly's proceedings started, the speaker called out the name of MPA Khan but he was not present in the House, after which Badozai disposed of the motion and deferred the session.
The security had been tightened around the assembly in Lahore on Sunday morning. Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi called the session today while cancelling the previous date of the assembly session scheduled for May 30.
Following the dismissal of the no-trust motion against Elahi, PML-N has announced that it would again submit a motion against the speaker, according to Geo News.
Meanwhile, the political situation intensified on Sunday morning as Punjab Police arrested a senior official of the Assembly after conducting raids at the houses of multiple officials.
As per the reports by Pakistan media, the police conducted raids at the houses of Director General (DG) Parliamentary Affairs Rai Mumtaz, Secretary Coordination Inayat Ullah, and Secretary Punjab Assembly Muhammad Muhammad Khan Bhatti, a Punjab Assembly spokesman confirmed.
While the police arrested DG, the other two escaped, ARY News reported.
Following this, the Police have taken control of the Punjab Assembly building and deployed personnel at all entrances of the House.
Speaker Punjab Assembly Parvez Elahi condemned the police action and said that the actions were taken in the direction of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. He said that the raids depict the government's failure to prove its majority in the house, ARY News reported.
