LAHORE: Punjab Assembly (PA) Speaker Sibtain Khan on Tuesday set aside Governor Balighur Rehman’s order requiring Chief Minister Parvez Elahi to obtain a vote of confidence from the house, saying that the instructions were “against the Constitution and Rules of Procedure”.
A day earlier, the Punjab governor summoned the provincial assembly’s session on December 21 (Wednesday) to deliberate on the no-confidence motion submitted by the lawmakers belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) against Chief Minister Parvez Elahi.
According to a notification issued by the Punjab Governor’s Secretariat, “The governor Punjab is pleased to sign order summoning the provincial assembly of Punjab at 1600 hours (4pm) on Wednesday and requiring the chief minister of Punjab to obtain a vote of confidence in terms of Article 130(7) of the Constitution.”
The speaker also adjourned the PA session till December 23 — the same day PTI plans to dissolve the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
On Saturday, PTI Chairman Imran Khan announced that his governments in the two provinces will dissolve their assemblies on Friday to pave the way for fresh elections.
In his ruling, Speaker Sibtain Khan said that until and unless the current session is prorogued, the governor cannot summon any fresh session — according to a three-member bench of the Lahore High Court in the Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo vs Federation of Pakistan case.
The speaker added that the session in terms of Article 130(7) of the Constitution — under which the governor can summon a session for a vote of confidence — can “be determined only in a session which is especially summoned for this purpose”.
The order said that as per a Lahore High Court verdict, the matter of confidence in the chief minister could only be determined in a session that was “especially summoned for this purpose”.
It stated that the governor could not summon this special session while the current session was ongoing.
“In view of the above, the undersigned, in terms of Rule 209-A of the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997, give ruling that the order of governor requiring chief minister to take vote of confidence, being not in accordance with aforementioned provisions of the Constitution and Rules of Procedure, may not be processed any further; hence, disposed of accordingly.”
The ruling pointed out that the governor was empowered by Article 109 of the Constitution to summon or prorogue an assembly session, however, he had summoned the 41st assembly session but never prorogued it.
“That being the case, the governor is not empowered to summon the session requiring the chief minister to obtain a vote of confidence,” it added.
