LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed the Punjab Assembly to conduct a vote before April 16 to elect the new chief minister of Pakistan's second largest province as the top position has been lying vacant since Usman Buzdar's resignation.
The two candidates in the running for the top slot are PML-Q's Parvez Elahi, the speaker of the Punjab Assembly, and PML-N's Hamza Shehbaz, son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The vote to elect a new chief minister was first scheduled on April 3 and then rescheduled to April 6 on account of damage to the assembly hall allegedly by the protesting Opposition lawmakers.
Then it was pushed once again to April 16, it said, Geo News reported. In order to avoid further delays, Hamza, who is confident of a win, took the matter to the LHC which ruled that no member would be stopped from voting on the day of the vote, slated for Saturday morning, it said.
The court noted that the session of the Punjab Assembly was adjourned from April 3 to April 6 "on account of unavoidable circumstances" but the specific cause was not provided to the court.
As for the damage caused to the Punjab Assembly on April 3, the LHC stated that the registrar of the court visited the assembly hall and submitted his report.
After the resignation of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on April 1, a close aide of ex-prime minister Imran Khan, the Punjab Assembly convened a session to elect the new leader of the House.
But following the dismissal of the no-confidence motion against Khan by the deputy speaker in the National Assembly on the basis of an "international conspiracy" against the elected government, the Punjab Assembly's deputy speaker had deferred the session to elect the new chief minister.
As the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari called the session, the ruling PTI lawmakers moved a no-confidence motion against him.
Following the submission of the motion, the Punjab Assembly was sealed by the government and a heavy contingent of police was deployed there.
Reacting to the sealing of the provincial assembly, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said the deputy speaker had been "locked out" of the assembly on the day of voting for the chief minister's election.
The coalition government reportedly has not had the required numbers which is why it is delaying the session.
Over 20 lawmakers of the ruling party have defected to the Opposition, thus making it almost impossible for the PTI coalition to win the chief minister election.