ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Saturday that it would ask Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi to secure a vote of confidence from the provincial assembly and then move towards its dissolution.
The political temperature in Pakistan's most populous Punjab province has been high over the past couple of days as the government and opposition both jostle for power. The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday restored Elahi as chief minister of Punjab less than a day after the governor denotified him for not seeking a vote of confidence from the assembly on his direction.
Former PM Khan, who has been pressurizing the government to hold snap elections, has said his party would dissolve the provincial assemblies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab and hold elections there. Khan says polls are the only solution to Pakistan's economic and political crisis.
Khan's PTI party is in power in the northwestern KP province while his key ally, Elahi, is the chief minister of Punjab. Elahi has repeatedly said he would comply with Khan's orders and dissolve the assembly on his directives.
The LHC agreed to restore Elahi and his cabinet in Punjab after the chief minister assured the high court that he would not dissolve the Punjab Assembly until the next hearing, which is on January 11.
Speaking to reporters, PTI leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said a meeting of the party's senior leaders had decided that the Punjab chief minister would seek a vote of confidence from the assembly.
"A [PTI] delegation will meet the chief minister and Moonis Elahi and during the meeting, we will decide the date of the next assembly session so that the vote of confidence is given to the chief minister, so that we make certain the dissolution of assemblies," he said.
Hussain said the PTI had 177 members in the Punjab Assembly while Elahi's Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) party had 10 lawmakers. "This way, we have 187 lawmakers, excluding the speaker," Hussain said. "If we include the speaker, the tally rises to 188."
The PTI leader said that Elahi had promised he would dissolve the assembly as per Khan's directives.
"We want to go for the vote of confidence immediately and God willing, after the vote of confidence, we will move towards the dissolution of the assemblies," Hussain said. "The new elections will then be held in accordance [with this decision]."
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has said that if the PTI dissolves the assemblies in the two provinces, it would hold elections in accordance with the constitution there. However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has categorically denied Khan's demands to hold snap elections across the country, saying that polls would be held as per schedule late next year.
