PA Speaker appears to dodge governor’s move but mum on no-trust motion

Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan appeared to have shot down one part of the Opposition’s two-pronged strategy to stall PTI’s plan for dissolution of the provincial legislature, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Speaker Sibtain Khan on Tuesday declared as illegal the PA special session called by Governor Balighur Rehman directing CM Pervaiz Elahi to obtain vote of confidence from the assembly.

The Punjab Assembly Secretariat refused to issue the gazette notification regarding the session called by the governor.

Speaker Sibtain Khan was of the view that the Punjab Assembly was already in session. “I do not consider Governor’s decision to call a new session a right one. It’s illegal and unconstitutional,” he added.

Sibtain Khan further argued that a new session could not be called when the assembly was already in session.

He said neither a special session will be called nor a gazette notification will be issued.

He said the Punjab Assembly has been in session for the last four months and it has not been prorogued.

He said neither lawmakers will be notified, nor motion will be submitted and chief minister will not seek a vote of confidence.

The speaker’s statement has apparently neutralized governor’s move asking the CM to take vote of confidence. The governor may now knock at court’s door to overturn the speaker’s decision.

But the dust not settle yet, the other part of the two-pronged strategy was the no-confidence motion submitted by the PML-N against the chief minister.

Sibtain Khan in his Tuesday talk did not utter a word about the no-confidence motion or how the PTI is going to deal with it.

The tabling of the no-confidence motion automatically undermined PTI chief Imran Khan’s plan to dissolve the Punjab Assembly.

The ruling party in the province must be weighing all options to tackle the no-confidence motion but apparently it was running out of time as the date set by Imran Khan to announced his decision is not far.