Punjab Assembly (PA) Speaker Sibtain Khan has issued a ruling over the Punjab governor’s directives to CM Parvez Elahi for seeking a vote of confidence, 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Tuesday.
Sibtain termed the governor’s order illegal, saying: “The instructions are against the Constitution and Rules of Procedure..”
Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman asked the chief minister to obtain a vote of confidence from the PA on Wednesday (tomorrow), while PML-N and PPP lawmakers submitted a separate no-trust resolution against him in a bid to bar him from dissolving the assembly.
Sibtain said the assembly was already in session and until and unless the current session is prorogued, the governor cannot summon any fresh session.
“As per a Lahore High Court verdict, the matter of confidence in the chief minister could only be determined in a session that was specially summoned for this purpose. The governor could not summon this special session while the current session was ongoing.
The ruling added that the governor was empowered by Article 109 of the Constitution to summon or prorogue an assembly session, however, he had summoned the 41st assembly session but never prorogued it.
“That being the case, the governor is not empowered to summon the session requiring the chief minister to obtain a vote of confidence.”
Therefore, the PA speaker stressed: “The order of the governor requiring the chief minister to take a vote of confidence, being not in accordance with the aforementioned provisions of the Constitution and Rules of Procedure, may not be processed any further; hence, disposed of accordingly.”