Pervaiz Elahi, Hamza Shehbaz to contest in Punjab CM election today
A tough contest is likely to be seen in the elections for Punjab chief minister position today between Pervaiz Elahi and Hamza Shehbaz.
LAHORE: A tough contest is likely to be seen in the elections for Punjab chief minister position today between Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) Pervaiz Elahi, who is also the joint candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) central leader Hamza Shehbaz.
Both candidates are having political strength as Pervaiz Elahi is the current Punjab Assembly Speaker and a senior politician, who had also served as Punjab CM during the military dictator Pervez Musharraf’s era from 2002 to 2007. He is having the support of PTI, the former ruling party in Punjab, and he also claimed to have the backing of some dissident PML-N provincial lawmakers.
On the other hand, Hamza Shehbaz belongs to a powerful political family and son of the current prime minister Shehbaz Sharif besides having the position of the Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly. He is also confident about his victory in today’s election as he claimed to have the support of dissident PTI groups led by Jahangir Tareen and Abdul Aleem Khan.
It is the most crucial phase for both PTI and PML-N as it will decide the political course in the coming days after the ouster of Imran Khan as Punjab will give a strong ground to the winning political parties in the next elections.
Moreover, the political rivalry between the Chaudhry brothers and Sharif brothers is not hidden from anyone and they will definitely try to win over each other for proving their political strength.
The PML-Q top leader had earlier claimed to have the support of 189 members of the provincial assembly (MPAs), whereas, Hamza Shehbaz claimed about having the support of more than 200 lawmakers out of 371-member Punjab Assembly.
In accordance with the party position, the winning candidate will need to get at least 186 votes to become the Punjab CM out of 371 lawmakers of the provincial assembly.
PTI has 183 lawmakers, PML-N 166, PML-Q 10 and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) seven, independent MPAs 4 and one legislator from Rah-e-Haq Party. The number of dissident PTI lawmakers is 21, whereas, five PML-N lawmakers are defiant of the top leadership and MPA Chaudhry Nisar is not taking part in the Punjab CM election.
The provincial home department made special security arrangements for the Punjab CM election as Section 144 was imposed outside the assembly’s building and more than 2,000 security personnel will be deployed.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) two-member bench had given its verdict yesterday which stated that the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari will hold the impartial and fair Punjab CM election besides allowing the international observers, other institutions and media to cover the event.
