Law Minister Rana Sanaullah on Thursday said Chaudhry Parvez Elahi had no more the Punjab chief minister as per the requirements of the constitution and that the Punjab governor could ask him for vote of confidence. Talking to reporters, he said Elahi failed to seek vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly yesterday, claiming the chief minister ceased to exist if he failed to seek vote of confidence. The minister claimed that the governor would manage to wrap up the political crisis today. He said a notification from the Governor House was a formality and that the order issued by the governor would be implemented.

It seems that the ongoing constitutional battle between the federal and Punjab governments is likely to land in courts as some questions of law have arisen after Governor Balighur Rehman asked Chief Minister Parvez Elahi to seek a vote of confidence in a special assembly session. The dispute over the previous runoff election of the chief minister was also settled by the courts after the Supreme Court observed in June that a ruling passed by the presiding officer (deputy speaker) regarding the rejection of 10 votes of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), polled in favour of Elahi, was in violation of its judgement and Article 63-A of the Constitution.

Punjab has not seen political stability since the ouster of prime minister Imran Khan through a vote of no confidence in April and several petitions are still pending before the courts relating to the chief minister’s election. If a media statement of Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan is to be believed, the coalition government in the centre is mulling over the imposition of governor rule in Punjab since Chief Minister Elahi has not taken a vote of confidence, as asked by the governor. A source in Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) suggested that the governor, after denotifying the chief minister, could also ask him, under Article 133 of the Constitution, to continue to hold the office until the election of his successor.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP