Home Latest News Hamza Shahbaz ‘Elected’ Punjab C.M. in Symbolic Punjab Assembly Session

Hamza Shahbaz ‘Elected’ Punjab C.M. in Symbolic Punjab Assembly Session

by Staff Report

Screengrab of the post-session press conference

United opposition convenes provincial assembly at private hotel after government seals Punjab Assembly and refuses entry of lawmakers

The united opposition on Wednesday convened a symbolic session of the Punjab Assembly at a private hotel to elect Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Hamza Shabaz the chief minister of the province after the government sealed the provincial assembly to all entry.

Members of the PMLN, the Pakistan Peoples Party, and the dissident groups of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led by Jahangir Khan Tareen and Abdul Aleem Khan participated in the session, with PMLN Vice President Maryam Nawaz acting as an observer.

PMLN leader and MPA Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan, in a posting on Twitter, said that Hamza Shahbaz had been elected the chief minister with 199 votes.

The legality of the session and Hamza’s election as chief minister remains uncertain, however, because the session was not convened in the Punjab Assembly and was only attended by opposition lawmakers. Similarly, Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi—Hamza’s opponent for the chief minister slot—did not preside over it; Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari attended the symbolic session, but did not preside over it, as Elahi had withdrawn his authority from the post earlier in the day after the PTI-led provincial government submitted a no-confidence motion against him.

The session was, instead, presided over by PPP MPA Shazia Abid, who said she had been added to the panel of chairman of the Punjab Assembly earlier this year. According to the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, 1997, any member of the panel of chairmen can preside over the session in the absence of the speaker and deputy speaker.

The Punjab Assembly Secretariat also remains under Elahi’s virtual control and has not issued any notification verifying Hamza’s election. The PMLN has claimed that it would try to get the symbolic vote legitimized through court orders, but most observers believe that the session’s primary purpose was to show the government that it no longer enjoyed the majority in the provincial assembly.

“The session of the Punjab Assembly that is going to take place presently is not symbolic but a constitutional and legal one,” Maryam posted on Twitter. “God willing, the PMLN is going to prove its majority,” she added.

Addressing a press conference after the ‘election,’ Maryam and Hamza thanked the PTI’s Jahangir Khan Tareen and Aleem Khan groups, as well as the PPP and independent lawmakers, for their support. Condemning the sealing of the Punjab Assembly, Maryam took special aim at Pervaiz Elahi for his role in the situation, noting that he had left the country’s most populous province without a functional government.

She said Hamza followed PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif’s ideology and would “serve” the people of the province as his father and uncle had earlier. “Today, Nawaz Sharif took the revenge [from PTI] that stole the mandate of the people of Punjab. Blood was shed to restrict PMLN from forming a government in Punjab,” she said, and lamented that the people of Punjab had been turned into “beggars” for just two kilograms of sugar. “They [PTI] were involved in the theft of sugar, power, gas, and development,” she alleged.

“Come and count,” she urged the government, “the representative of 200 MPAs—Hamza Shahbaz—is here. We have seen dictators [violate the Constitution], but Imran Khan has proved that he is the first civil dictator of Pakistan,” she added.

Hamza, meanwhile, challenged the PMLQ leader to contest the chief minister’s election against him “fairly,” adding that Elahi would have to answer for his “black actions.” He told journalists that the PTI was “playing with the Constitution,” adding these actions were a result of their panic over what was happening with them in Punjab and the center.

In a posting on Twitter, PMLQ leader Moonis Elahi—the son of Pervaiz Elahi—rubbished the vote by joking: “Congratulations Hamza sahab for becoming the chief minister of Faletti’s Hotel.”

The office of the Chief Minister of Punjab fell vacant after Usman Buzdar resigned on Imran Khan’s instructions. Khan has nominated PMLQ’s Elahi as the government’s candidate for the next chief minister—a decision that has provoked unrest within the PTI, with many lawmakers questioning why a party with just 10 votes should be allowed to rule over the assembly.

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