Daily Times

An important session of the Punjab Assembly for election of the province’s next chief minister was on Tuesday postponed till April 16.

According to a notification issued by the PA Secretariat, Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari moved the assembly session to the rescheduled date at 11:30am.

Media reports said the session has been delayed because lawmakers, on April 4, vandalised and damaged the building. The deputy speaker delayed the session as time was required to repair the damage done.

The development came as Prime Minister Imran Khan along with senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders arrived in Lahore to take stock of the political situation in Punjab. The premier was accompanied by Fawad Chaudhry, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pervez Khattak, Sheikh Rashid, and Asad Umar among other leaders.

PM Imran reportedly met PA Speaker Pervaiz Elahi and former CM Usman Buzdar and other lawmakers ahead of the crucial vote that has now been delayed by another 10 days.

The session was originally scheduled for today (Wednesday) at 11:30am after Sunday’s session was adjourned without voting to elect the new leader of the house amid ruckus by opposition and government lawmakers.

The Punjab Assembly had to elect the new leader of the house, with PML-Q’s PTI-backed Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz, who had secured the support of the Jahangir Khan Tarin Group, expected to go head to head in the race to become the next chief minister.

The PA session took place at the same time when a National Assembly session was to vote on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan. In the end, neither of the two votes took place as the no-trust move in parliament’s lower house was dismissed by NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri, who deemed the resolution in contradiction of Article 5 of the Constitution. To be elected as chief minister, a candidate will need at least 186 votes in the 371-member house. In the Punjab Assembly, the PTI has 183 lawmakers, PML-Q 10, PML-N 165, PPP seven, five are independent and one belongs to Rah-i-Haq.