The visibly unperturbed Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz has played it cooled when asked about the threat to his government in the province in the wake of recent verdicts delivered by the Supreme Court and Election Commission of Pakistan, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
While talking momentarily with media after attending a case against him in a court in Lahore on Saturday, Chief Minister Hamza rubbished the apprehensions regarding any threat to his government in Punjab.
“Our numbers are complete in Punjab Assembly. All rumours regarding threat to our government will die down,” he stated categorically.
He said that the Punjab government would complete its constitutional and legal duration.
In its landmark judgement on April 18, the Supreme Court declared votes of the dissident parliamentarians invalid and yesterday the ECP also accepted the PTI reference and de-seated its 25 dissident members of the Punjab Assembly who voted in favour of Hamza Shehbaz during his election for the chief minister on April 16. It’s because of the crucial support of these 25 PTI dissident MPAs that Hamza was elected to the office.
Though after the back-to-back verdicts of the SC and the ECP, Hamza still enjoys the support of majority of members of the Punjab Assembly.
According to details, PTI whose total strength in the provincial assembly stood at 183 shrunk to 158 after the ECP’s decision.
The party enjoys the support of 10 MPAs of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
Hence, the numbers of both these parties stand at 168.
On the other hand, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which had 165 members in the assembly, now has 161 members left after switching of sides by four of its members. With the backing of seven Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and four independents, its numbers now stand at 172.