ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Hamza Shehbaz was elected as Punjab's new chief minister on Saturday, after a chaotic session of the Punjab Assembly where legislators of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) scuffled with one another.
The top post in Punjab was vacant since the resignation of former Punjab CM Usman Buzdar. He stepped down last month after former prime minister Imran Khan nominated Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi for the new chief minister, in return for the PML-Q’s support in a no-confidence vote in the center. Khan lost the vote held on April 10.
The two candidates in the running were PML-Q’s Elahi, a former speaker of the Punjab Assembly, and Shehbaz, backed by the PML-N party and allies.
This combination of photos shows Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid nominee for Punjab chief minister Pervaiz Elahi (L) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz nominee Hamza Shehbaz (R). (Photos by AFP)
Shehbaz polled 197 votes while his opponent, Elahi, failed to secure a single vote from the assembly. PTI and PML-Q lawmakers had boycotted the voting process after the ruckus.
Visuals shared on news channels showed some lawmakers from the PTI and the PML-Q attacking Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari as he arrived in the assembly hall to chair the session. Mazari was later shifted to his chamber by the assembly’s guards.
“I will not go to the hospital despite violence and injuries [inflicted on me] and I will complete the process today as per the court’s orders,” Mazari said.
Following the violence, the vote for the Punjab chief minister election was delayed. The speaker resumed after a couple of hours.
Reportedly, Elahi was also attacked when he arrived at the Punjab Assembly for the election. Speaking to Geo News over the phone, he accused PML-N lawmakers of attempting to "take his life." Elahi said PML-N lawmakers had hit him repeatedly on the chest, adding that he was a heart patient.
A footage of Elahi is being played on TV channels in which he could be seen being led by the assembly's guards to his seat, a cast slung over his arm as he used a nebulizer.
Elahi also accused Shehbaz of ordering the "attack" on him by PML-N lawmakers.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the “attack” on the deputy speaker.
“PTI/PMLQ MPAs [Member of Provincial Assembly] attack on Dy [deputy] Speaker inside Punjab Assembly must be condemned in strongest terms possible. This blatant display of violence & hooliganism is fascism, pure & simple,” said the prime minister via a tweet. “IK’s [Imran Khan] desperation & incitement to violence is rupturing our society. He is attacking democracy itself.”
“We are inches away from [a] full-fledged civil unrest,” former information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said in a tweet.
He said ex-PM Khan has exercised utmost restraint, adding that “very soon even he won’t be able to stop this very angry mob and we [will] see country plunging into a civil unrest, imported leaders will not be able to leave the country,” Hussain added.
The assembly session was first scheduled for April 3 and then called on April 6 on account of damage caused to the assembly hall allegedly by the protesting opposition lawmakers.
The Punjab Assembly has 371 members. A candidate needs to secure at least 186 votes to be the next chief minister.
Apart from the PML-N’s 165 seats in the provincial assembly, Shehbaz claimed he had the support of the requisite number of lawmakers belonging to other political factions.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has 183 members, while the PML-Q has 10 seats in the provincial legislature. However, lawmakers disgruntled with both parties decided to favor Shehbaz in the contest.
The Lahore High Court earlier this week turned down a petition to hold early election for the position of Punjab chief minister, ruling the process would take place on April 16 as originally planned.
