A crucial session of the Punjab Assembly (PA) to vote for the province's next chief minister was on Tuesday postponed till April 16, according to a notification issued by the assembly secretariat.
The notification, a copy of which is available with media, said PA Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari moved the assembly session to the rescheduled date at 11:30am.
The session was originally scheduled for Wednesday (tomorrow) at 11:30am after Sunday's session was adjourned without voting to elect the new leader of the house amid ruckus by opposition and government lawmakers.
The provincial assembly had to elect the new leader of the house, with PML-Q's PTI-backed Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and PML-N's Hamza Shehbaz, who had secured the support of the Jahangir Khan Tarin group, expected to go head to head in the race to become the next chief minister.The PA session took place at the same time when a National Assembly session was to vote on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan. In the end, neither of the two votes took place as the no-trust move in parliament's lower house was dismissed by NA Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri, who deemed the resolution in contradiction of Article 5 of the Constitution.
To be elected as chief minister, a candidate will need at least 186 votes in the 371-member house. In the Punjab Assembly, the PTI has 183 lawmakers, PML-Q 10, PML-N 165, PPP seven, five are independent and one belongs to Rah-i-Haq.
