Lahore: A session of the Punjab Assembly (PA) in Pakistan was adjourned on Sunday April 3 till Wednesday April 6 without voting to elect the new leader of the house and Chief Minister amid ruckus by opposition and government lawmakers, Dawn reported.
The provincial assembly was to vote on Sunday to elect the new leader of the house, with PML-Q’s PTI-backed Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz, who had secured the support of Jahangir Khan Tarin (JKT) group, expected to go head to head in the race to become the next chief minister.
Ahead of the session, the press gallery of the Assembly was locked, barring journalists from covering the proceedings.
The PA session took place at the same time when a National Assembly (NA) session was to vote on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In the end, neither of the two votes took place as the no-trust move in the NA was dismissed by Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri, who deemed the resolution in contradiction of Article 5 of the Constitution.
PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique deemed the adjournment of the session “unconstitutional”.
Earlier, the federal government, in a surprise move, removed Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar from his post hours before the session of the provincial assembly. He was later replaced by Omar Sarfraz Cheema, PTI’s former information secretary.
