Daily Times

Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Asim Hafeez remarked on Wednesday that it was compulsory for a chief minister to have round-the-clock support from a majority of lawmakers in the house, a private TV channel reported on Wednesday. He passed these remarks as a five-member bench comprising him, Justice Abid Aziz Shaikh, Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal, Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, and Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir took up Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s plea challenging Governor Balighur Rehman’s orders to de-notify him as the provincial chief executive. During the hearing, the court extended the relief granted to Elahi till Thursday (Jan 12), 9am. It also said that the chief minister could not dissolve the assembly during this time. In a tweet after the court hearing, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Elahi had no other option but to take a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly. “We have 179 numbers in Punjab which can increase as well. But, you [the PTI and PML-Q] don’t have the 186 number. If you do, then Elahi should immediately take a trust vote – there is no other solution,” he said. “I want to make it clear that they will have to take a vote of confidence anyway,” Sanaullah added.