LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members held a symbolic Punjab Assembly session at a local hotel after being unable to hold a session in the Punjab Assembly.
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz also arrived to express solidarity with Hamza Shehbaz, who is contesting on the vacant seat of chief minister’s seat, and other MPAs who have shuttered oust of the provincial assembly.
In a video posted on PML-N’s Twitter handle, Maryam can be seen with Hamza Shehbaz riding in a bus towards the hotel alongside other party leaders. “The session of the Punjab Assembly that is going to take place presently is not symbolic but a constitutional and legal one. God willing, the PML-N is going to prove its majority.”
Members of PML-N, PTI’s Jehangir Tareen group and Aleem Khan group gathered at the hotel for symbolic session of provincial assembly. Maryam also shared a video on her official Twitter handle in which she can be seen having a live phone session with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Punjab Assembly’s spokesperson termed the move of holding the symbolic session “an illegal act”. “The deputy speaker does not have the right to hold the session as he’s not eligible to do so after the submission of no-trust motion against him,” he added.
مریم نواز شریف اور حمزہ شہباز شریف آواری ہوٹل سے اجلاس میں شرکت کے لئے روانہ pic.twitter.com/7KsKtAY9VC
— PML(N) (@pmln_org) April 6, 2022
The provincial assembly received two no-trust motions in a single day, one against Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi by the joint opposition and the other by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against its own Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari.
Mazari had summoned the Punjab Assembly session today at 7:30 pm to elect the new chief minister of the province. He vowed to hold the session today but said the assembly staff was not supported him. The crisis worsened after the Speaker PA withdrew all powers assigned to the Deputy Speaker.
The opposition’s motion against Pervaiz Elahi was not accepted by the assembly secretariat. The PML-N’s resolution against Speaker Elahi alleged that he violated assembly rules and influenced assembly matters
The PTI had submitted a no-trust motion against its own Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari for withdrawing the order postponing today’s PA session to April 16. This is the first time two-confidence motion have been filed in a single say.
Reacting to the sealing of the provincial assembly, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari decried that the deputy speaker had been “locked out” of the assembly on the day of voting for the chief minister’s election.
The PPP chief n a tweet: “If it takes 30 seconds to pull off a coup, it should take 30 seconds to undo a coup. Justice delayed is justice denied. After last week’s constitutional breakdown in Islamabad, today Punjab deputy speaker was locked out of [the] assembly on [the] day of voting for CM. Barbered [sic] wire around people’s house.”
