After a tense build-up over the last few days, the Lahore High Court reinstated Pervaiz Elahi as Punjab’s chief minister, setting aside the governor’s order that de-notified him.
The high court’s order came after getting an assurance from Elahi that the assembly would not be dissolved before the next hearing.
A session of the assembly has been summoned on January 11, the same day the Lahore High Court will resume its hearing of the case.
So, has the dissolution been put off? Not quite.
The newly restored CM took to Twitter late on Friday evening to say that Imran Khan’s plan of dissolving will go through as planned.
He said that the ‘imported government’ wants to run from the elections.
The vote of confidence that became the original bone of contention between governor and cm and led to the order of denotifying the CM might come back into the picture.
Senator Kamil Ali Agha of the PML-Q told a TV channel on Friday that a vote of confidence can take place before January 11, after which Pervaiz Elahi would be free to dissolve the assembly.
The PML-N gave the situation a new turn, when it said that Elahi will use his restoration as an opportunity for corruption.
Rana Sanaullah said that courts gave Elahi his ultimate requested relief as initial relief. In a press conference on Saturday, he said that the CM will use the additional time to make heavy spending via development funds, as part of PTI and PML-Q’s election campaign.
“We request the chief justice to take suo moto notice and restrict this government to day to day business,” he said. he added that the PML-N has started preparing for elections in Punjab.
The minister said that if Chaudhry Parvez Elahi was confident enough of having majority, he could take vote of confidence and end this state of confusion, adding that they do not have numbers that is why they are escaping from vote of confidence. Why did PTI not dissolve the KPK Assembly? he questioned.
Khwaja Saad Rafique said that PTI chief Imran Khan would not have given any ultimatum if he was serious about dissolution of provincial assemblies, adding that this Punjab government should not be able to spent billions of rupees in name of development projects as it only existed on stay order.
He added that PDM had not tried to destabilise PTI’s governments in Punjab and KP.
If PML-N enjoys the small victory of potentially forcing the Pervaiz Elahi to face a vote of confidence, and PTI/PML-Q have had their government restored, who is the real winner?
Sheikh Rasheed thinks it’s a tie.
Calling the decision 50-50 on Twitter, he said that the governor’s order had been suspended not struck down. He added that no law can compel an assembly to to complete its tenure.
