LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The Punjab Assembly will meet on Friday afternoon to elect the new leader of the house to settle the dust on the long-drawn-out imbroglio triggered by the ‘disputed elections’ of the incumbent chief minister, Hamza Shehbaz, earlier this year.
The latest party position indicates an edge of eight votes for Pervez Elahi, PTI-PML-Q candidate for the chief minister slot in Punjab.
Courtesy: Tribune.com
In accordance with the apex court order, the run-off polls are taking place five days after the by-polls on 20 seats that fell vacant after the disqualification of PTI defectors who voted for Hamza, in a new, reconstituted House with a changed electoral college.
PTI-PML-Q’s candidate Pervaiz Elahi and the incumbent chief minister are now competing for the coveted post. A flurry of meetings are taking place in Lahore between political heavyweights and desperate labour to deliver a last-minute shock to the other side, Tribune.com reported today.
However, the stars are believed to be aligned for the PTI which is entering the critical stretch of its plans to gather up the reins of the province it lost in a controversial chief minister’s election.
If PTI emerges as a victor in today’s contest, Imran Khan’s PTI will gain the political weightage it has been chasing to undercut the power of its arch-rivals in the Centre.
On the other hand, in a bid to hold the apparently slipping ground tight, the ruling PML-N has become feistier in its efforts to exhaust all options in its fast-shrinking room to save the Hamza-led government that was allowed by the apex court to continue only until today’s crucial elections.
A potential defeat would virtually leave the PML-N waiting for the other shoe to drop – a domino effect in Islamabad where the incumbent chief minister’s father, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is keeping tabs on the province’s politics with bated breath.
