The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has welcomed the ECP ruling on de-seating defecting lawmakers of the Punjab Assembly, saying that half of the ‘conspiracy’ against the Imran Khan government had been rolled back. Speaking to reporters outside the ECP, PTI leader Asad Umar said there was no justification for Punjab Assembly to function. Asad Umar and Fawad Chaudhry demanded the dissolution of Punjab Assembly. Umar said that de-seating of the PTI MPAs is a rollback of half of the alleged conspiracy to topple Imran Khan’s government and that the other half should also be rolled back. He said that after the decision by the electoral body, nobody knows who is running Punjab as the constitutional crisis has deepened. He said the time for the drama is over and the country should go to fresh elections immediately. Umar hailed PTI’s legal team for the recent court and ECP verdicts that were in favor of PTI.
Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said that Hamza Shehbaz doesn’t have the majority in the Punjab assembly to run the government after the decision of the electoral body. He said that technically, a government formed on 186 votes is required in the provincial assembly, but in the re-run, the governor Punjab and the president would examine if the government is stable enough to be run if the figure is below that or else they would dissolve it.
Speaking politically, he said, Hamza Shehbaz’s government was never formed in the province and cited a verdict of the Supreme Court according to which a government does not exist without a cabinet in the parliamentary form of government. He said the PTI and PML-Q alliance has 173 members altogether and Hamza Shehbaz has the support of 172 members.
On a question regarding the de-seating of five PTI members on the reserved seats, he said the tally of 173 includes five reserved members as well, and that a notification in this regard will be issued soon. He demanded the experiments being performed for the past 90 days should end now.
