Daily Times

A political show is all set to be held at Lower House today (Sunday) as the fate of Prime Minister Imran Khan will be decided in the wake of voting on the no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition against him.

Apparently, Imran Khan has lost majority in the house of 342 members after estrangement of some of his own party members and almost all allies of his government categorically decided to exit the ruling coalition. Currently, the opposition parties have managed to cross the magical figure of 172 which is the minimum number required to form the government.

On Friday, the chair had announced the adjournment of NA sitting within minutes without allowing debate on the no-confidence resolution despite calls from the opposition benches. During course of this short meet-up, members of government’s former allies Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Shahzain Bugti of the Jamhoori Watan Party sat on the opposition benches.

As per opposition claims, they have now 175 members in hand who will vote in favor of the motion. Change is also on the cards in Punjab today as voting in Punjab Assembly (PA) will be held to elect new leader of the house following Usman Buzdar’s resignation.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Saturday presided over the session which was held after four hours delay amid sloganeering from both opposition and treasury benches. The session began with the recitation from the Holy Quran followed by Naat-e-Rasool (Peace Be Upon Him).

The session was subsequently adjourned till 11:30 am on Sunday.

Nomination papers for the slot of chief ministership had been submitted in the office of the assembly secretary. The voting process would be carried out through the parliamentary mode of open division of the house.

Hamza Shahbaz was a candidate for the chief ministership of muttahida opposition while Prime Minister Imran Khan had nominated Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi for the slot.

The assembly secretariat had issued standard operating procedures for the assembly business.

As per the agenda the entry of the guest along with the members of the assembly was banned.

No member of the assembly was allowed to take cell phone inside the house and the same would be handed over to the security while women members were also not allowed to take their handbags inside the house and submit the same to the security.

The members had been directed to bring their CNICs and assembly cards with them on the day of voting.

The hurriedly called PA session had caught the opposition off-guard. Each side claimed to have the support of provincial lawmakers to secure the much-needed 186 votes in the 371-member house to occupy the top office in Punjab.

The PML-N finalised the name of Hamza Shehbaz after its approval by the party supremo.

The PTI camp, now led by Elahi, entered into deep consultations and manoeuvrings with MPAs across the political divide. The ruling coalition camp was buzzing with activities ranging from meeting the visitors, calling different lawmakers and seeking time for PML-Q’s top leadership visit for their assured support. The PTI and PML-Q also held their joint parliamentary meeting at the chief minister’s secretariat and showed a strength of over 150 MPAs, which included those belonging to the PML-N.

Once the nomination papers for the chief minister’s office are submitted and the scrutiny process concludes, the candidate who secures the votes of the majority of the total membership of the assembly will be declared the chief minister.

But if no candidate secures the votes of the majority in the first poll, the speaker shall conduct a second poll between the candidates who secure the two highest numbers of votes in the first poll. The speaker shall then declare the candidate who secures the majority of votes of the members present as the chief minister.

In case during the second poll there is a tie, the speaker shall hold further polls between them until one of them secures the majority of votes of the members present and voting.