Ex-PM Khan ally wins Punjab confidence vote
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan ally won a confidence vote as chief minister in the Punjab Assembly, the latest electoral win for the popular opposition leader demanding early general elections.
Chaudhry Parvez Elahi secured 186 votes from lawmakers in the 371-member house, speaker Muhammad Sibtain Khan announced the result in a session that lasted more than an hour after midnight. The voting happened despite the chief minister holding the office temporarily amid a court case that contest his position. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s members boycotted the session and plan to legally contest the voting.
Mr Khan, who was ousted as prime minister in April, announced to dissolve two of the nation’s four provincial assemblies last month that he holds a majority to force early elections. Mr Khan has said that he will ask chief minister Elahi to dissolve the assembly as soon as he wins the confidence vote. Mr Elahi has so far resisted Mr Khan’s call to dissolve the assembly.
The political uncertainty comes as Pakistan’s economy is facing multiple challenges including a dollar shortage that has led to companies shutting down and a drop in foreign exchange reserves to less than one months of imports amid a delay in its loan programme with the International Monetary Fund. Credit rating companies including Moody’s Investors Services have downgraded the nation deeper into junk while its long-term bonds continue to trade at distressed levels.
Punjab’s Chief Minister had earlier refused to seek a confidence vote and was sacked from the office by the province’s Governor Muhammad Baligh ur Rehman for the refusal. The chief minister challenged the decision in the court that asked him to continue in the role until a verdict is reached.