Lahore:
After the announcement by the Prime Minister to nominate Chaudhry Pervez Elahi as the Chief Minister of Punjab by PTI, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi became active to get maximum support for his new post.
According to a report, Pervez Elahi approached the angry PTI leader Jahangir Tareen for support in case the joint opposition fielded a candidate against him.
At the same time, he talked to some dissident members of the ruling party and tried to persuade them not to support the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister.
Speaking to a private TV channel, Pervez Elahi confidently claimed that “Prime Minister Imran Khan will escape the no-confidence motion and the new Punjab Chief Minister will also belong to the PTI alliance. We will achieve both the objectives.”
Defending the party’s decision to side with the PTI, the senior PML-Q leader said, “Maryam Nawaz’s group in the PML-N is against giving anything to the PML-Q. “We have been told by our sources that we will not stay in power for more than four months after joining hands with the opposition,” the party said in a statement.
He further claimed that he had talked to the members of Tareen group and they would support him in the election of Punjab Chief Minister.
Ali Gilani, a member of the Tareen group, met Pervez Elahi and assured him of his support.
Minister for Water Resources Monis Elahi spoke to Ali Tareen, daughter of Jahangir Tareen, and asked her to support his group.
PML-Q leader Kamil Ali Agha also said that the party’s priority is to ensure the failure of the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister. We are doing our best to ensure that the coalition government completes its term.
At the same time, he said that the PML-Q was trying to persuade National Assembly member Tariq Bashir Cheema not to vote against the party line in the no-confidence motion.
On the other hand, Tariq Bashir Cheema said that he is still with the Chaudhrys of Gujarat but did not comment on changing the decision to vote against the Prime Minister.
Opposition groups called for a boycott of the by-elections in protest of the Chaudhrys’ decision to step down.
PML-N chief Ayaz Sadiq and PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry allegedly spoke to Tareen group leader Aun Chaudhry on Tuesday to seek his support for the no-confidence motion and election of a new chief minister.
A party leader said that Fawad Chaudhry had told Aun Chaudhry that the prime minister had accepted his group’s demand to replace Usman Bazdar, and that he should now support the prime minister.
Meanwhile, the Tareen group held a meeting in Lahore and discussed support for Pervez Elahi, but the group said the final decision would be made by Jahangir Tareen, who is currently in London for treatment.
On the other hand, PML-N MNA Javed Latif told a private TV channel that the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz or the angry PTI MPA Aleem Khan were the joint opposition candidates for the post of Chief Minister. Can be
Interestingly, Aleem Khan could not present a single legislator in his support and his claims of supporting 30 to 40 MPAs turned out to be ‘false’.
It may be recalled that the 371-member Punjab Assembly has 165 members from PML-N, 7 from PPP, 10 from PML-Q and 20 from the nearest group.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Bazdar is likely to remain in office till the outcome of the no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister.
Sources told Dawn: “Osman Buzdar’s resignation has not been accepted by the governor yet. If he had accepted, the assembly would have had to convene in 2-3 days.
