Speaker Sibtain Khan adjourns the Punjab Assembly session till December 23

Speaker Sibtain Khan has adjourned the Punjab Assembly session till December 23!

All eyes are set on the Punjab assembly following the recent political crisis and announcement by PTI Chief Imran Khan to dissolve the provincial assembly.

On Tuesday, the speaker Sabtin Khan adjourned the Punjab Assembly session till December 23 while the opposition parties Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the House prepared their strategy for the motion of no confidence against Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.

While presiding over the Punjab Assembly session, Speaker Sibtin Khan said that the session of the assembly is already underway and the governor cannot call for a new session until this session ends.

Speaker Punjab Assembly, taking Lahore High Court’s decision into consideration, declared that the Governor’s order to take the vote of confidence to the Chief Minister is not in accordance with the above clause and rules of the Constitution, therefore no further action can be taken and the meeting has been postponed.

Talking about the matter, he said that I met the lawyers to understand the constitution and rules and I have been saying this since day one and I think it is right.

Sabatin Khan said that this move of the Punjab Governor was illegal and wrong.

Lahore High Court’s decision

According to the decision of the Lahore High Court, the matter of confidence in the Chief Minister can be discussed only in the session which has been specially called for this purpose.

The judgment said that the Governor cannot call a special session as long as the House is already in session.

The High Court judgment stated that the Governor has the power to call or stop the session under Article 109 of the Constitution, but so far the 41st session of the Assembly has been called but never stopped.

It has been said in the decision that in this case, the Governor does not have the authority to call a meeting to take a vote of confidence in the Chief Minister.

 

In a major development, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday also allowed the suspended lawmakers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to attend the much-anticipated session of the Punjab Assembly with a crucial no-confidence motion — filed by the joint opposition against Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan, on October 23, had banned the entry of 18 PML-N lawmakers to the assembly for their unruly conduct during the session.

A day after the submission of the no-trust motion against the CM Punjab, the lawmakers challenged the October 23 order of the speaker.