ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), two main parties in the ruling coalition, submitted a no-trust resolution against Chief Minister of Punjab Parvez Elahi in the provincial assembly on Monday evening, local media reported.

Last week, former prime minister Imran Khan announced he would dissolve the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa legislative assemblies on December 23, 2022, to pressure the government into announcing snap polls.

Khan has campaigned for early elections since being ousted from power in a parliamentary vote in April, heightening political instability in the South Asian nation. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party controls two of the country’s four provincial assemblies, while the other two are controlled by his political opponents, who also control the federal government under PM Shehbaz Sharif. The coalition government has said it will not hold polls before they are due in November 2023.

On Monday evening, Punjab Governor Baligh-ur-Rehman, citing Article 130(7) of the constitution, asked CM Elahi to seek a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly and convened a session of the assembly on Wednesday, December 21. Elahi’s PML-Q party is a key Khan ally.

“Keeping in view [facts] manifesting serious cracks and evident faults within the ruling coalition in Punjab Assembly, which already carried only a very narrow numerical margin, I, Baligh ur Rehman, Governor of Punjab, am satisfied that Ch. [Parvez] Elahi, the Chief Minister of Punjab, does not command the confidence of the majority of the members of the provincial assembly,” an order issued by the Punjab Governor read.

Under the Pakistani constitution, a no-confidence motion moved against a chief minister prevents them from dissolving the assembly.

Responding to the development, close Khan aide Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said the ruling coalition had submitted a no-trust resolution against Elahi to evade elections.

“The purpose of a vote of no confidence [against CM Elahi] is to escape from the elections,” Chaudhry wrote on Twitter.

“Until yesterday, Rana Sanaullah and Ahsan Iqbal (federal ministers) were asking us to dissolve the assemblies and move toward elections but now they are escaping out of fear, but we will not let that happen,” he said.

Hussain said the no-trust move against Elahi would not succeed, adding that the Punjab CM would dissolve the assembly and the “decision of the nation will be final”.