Pakistan's Punjab Assembly adjourned till April 6 without electing new CM
Apr 03, 2022
Lahore [Pakistan], April 3 : The proceedings of Pakistan's Punjab Assembly (PA) adjourned till April 6 without electing the new leader of the house amid the ruckus created by the Opposition and the government lawmakers.
The provincial assembly was scheduled to vote today to elect the new Chief minister position among Pakistan Muslim League-Q's (PML-Q) Parvez Elahi, who has the support of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Estranged leader of PTI Jahangir Khan Tareen and other lawmakers who are associated with Tareen backed Hamza Shehbaz and are expected to go head to head in the race to become the next chief minister, Dawn reported.
The PA session took place at the same time when Pakistan's National Assembly was voting on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan. In the end, Pakistan President Arif Alvi dissolved National Assembly on the proposal of PM Imran Khan, with the elections likely to be held in the next 90 days.
Earlier in the day, another surprise came when the Punjab province Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar was removed, ahead of the provincial assembly session. He was later replaced by PTI's former information secretary, Omar Sarfraz Cheema, according to Dawn.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry announced the government's decision on his official Twitter account.
"The federal government has removed Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar from his post. The new governor of Punjab will be announced later. According to the constitution, the deputy speaker will be the acting governor," he said (in a roughly translated tweet).
The development comes days after Sarwar accepted Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar's resignation after the Opposition submitted a no-confidence motion against him.
The Joint Opposition had submitted a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar in the Punjab Assembly, citing that they had been "dissatisfied with his performance."
Sarwar sought approval from Khan before taking his final decision, sources said, adding that he has summoned a session of the Punjab Assembly on April 2 to elect the new leader of the House, Geo News had reported.
