The Punjab Assembly will on Sunday (tomorrow) elect the new chief minister of the province after Governor Chaudhry Sarwar accepted Usman Buzdar's resignation, Aaj News reported.

This came after the session was held briefly on Saturday (today) after four hours of delays and amid sloganeering from both opposition and treasury benches. The session was adjourned till 11:30am tomorrow. According to the assembly secretary, nomination papers for the position could be submitted to his office till 5pm today while their scrutiny would commence at 6pm.

The Punjab Assembly, which was expected to hold voting for the new chief minister of the province today, would only issue the election schedule today, according to the august House secretary.

“There will be further proceedings except issuing the schedule. It’s the House speaker’s discretion to hold voting tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, after announcing the election schedule. Voting will not be held today,” Punjab Assembly secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti said while talking to reporters in Lahore.

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar on Friday accepted the resignation of CM Usman Buzdar amid the government’s efforts to lure the coalition partners and summoned the provincial assembly session.

The ruling party PTI and the PML-Q have nominated Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as its candidate who will be up against Hamza Shehbaz, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif's son, for the coveted seat. As per the House rules, the winning candidate needs the support of as many as 186 lawmakers in the 371-member assembly to secure his/her position.

Right after accepting Buzdar’s resignation, Punjab Governor Sarwar summoned the provincial assembly session at 11pm today. The Punjab cabinet has also been dissolved after Buzdar's resignation has been accepted.

It de-notified CM Buzdar after the acceptance of his resignation but in the same notification allowed him “to continue to hold office until his successor enters upon the office”.

In an interview with Dunya News show ‘Dunya Kamran Khan kay sath’, Parvez had claimed that he had the support of the lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly for the chief minister seat. He was “confident” of winning the election based on the party’s contacts with the lawmakers from both sides of the aisle in parliament.

In the same interview, he had claimed that the PTI has accepted the MQM-P terms and the no-confidence motion against the premier “would fail.” However, in turn of events, the MQM-P signed an agreement with the united opposition based on “resolving the issues.”

Similarly, the Aleem Khan group in Punjab announced their decision not to vote in favour of Parvez and criticised the PTI’s slogan of “new Pakistan” with the nomination of an “old face.” Moreover, the Tareen and Cheena groups – one of the two important groups in Punjab – are yet to make any final decision.

The united opposition has claimed that the PML-Q leader would not be able to win the Punjab CM elections as they have complete numbers to rule the largest populated province of the country.

Such developments prompted Water Resources Minister Moonis Elahi, who is also a PML-Q leader, to seek support from the PTI’s disgruntled groups – Tareen and Cheena. According to Aaj News, Moonis had a four-hour long meeting with the Tareen group lawmakers.

“Mashallah,” Moonis said in response to a question from reporters after meeting with the Tareen group MPAs. He also advised reporters to ask the Tareen group for support for Pervez.

Sources said that the next round of talks would be held today at 12pm. “Hopefully, Parvez Elahi will be the next chief minister,” Moonis said.

In addition to this, the PML-N demanded of Buzdar to submit a new designation, which will be the “real resignation letter,” in order to quit. PML-N leader Khawja Saad Rafique called for a resignation letter as per the Constitution or else the party would challenge it.

Another PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah called for checking the legality and formalities of the notification while expressing concerns over the abrupt issuance of the official handout.