Outgoing Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar
Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) voices support for P.M. Khan in no-confidence vote after being offered top provincial slot
The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday announced that incumbent chief minister Usman Buzdar had offered his resignation to Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had decided to back Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi for his party’s next candidate for the top slot.
“The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf will support Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi for the post of chief minister of Punjab,” PTI spokesperson Shahbaz Gill said in a posting on Twitter. “Q-League has pledged its support for the prime minister in the no-confidence motion,” he added.
Mere hours before the PMLQ pledged its support to the PTI, the joint opposition had submitted a no-confidence motion against Buzdar in the Punjab Assembly, blaming his performance for the move. Signed by 126 of 371 lawmakers, the resolution had said that Bazdar had lost the confidence of the majority of the House.
Similarly, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said that “all issues” between the PMLQ and the PTI had been resolved during a meeting between Elahi and Khan at Bani gala. “The Q-League has announced its support for the prime minister and Usman Buzdar has presented his resignation,” he wrote on Twitter. “The prime minister has decided to support Pervaiz Elahi for the post of chief minister of Punjab,” he added.
The PMLQ, in a separate statement, confirmed that Elahi had assured Khan of the PMLQ’s “full cooperation” in the no-confidence vote. “As allies, we will serve the nation together,” the statement quoted Elahi as saying.
However, the PMLQ—which has 4 general and 1 reserved seats in the National Assembly—could not provide a united front as its leader, Tariq Basheer Cheema, tendered his resignation from the federal cabinet the same day and said he would support the opposition in the no-confidence vote. In his resignation letter, the PMLQ leader said he had resigned because of “the inability of the government to bring stability to the democratic institutions and resolve serious governance issue[s] in the provinces.”
Cheema’s statement had provoked commentary that the PMLQ was split on the issue and could see some of its lawmakers voting in favor of Khan and others against. Speculation was also rife that the rift was between PMLQ leader Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi, with the former favoring the opposition and the latter the ruling party.
On Tuesday morning, Hussain issued a statement clarifying that there was “no rift” within the PMLQ. He said that all decisions had been taken with his support and urged against “baseless speculation.”