With Punjab Assembly Sealed, Opposition Lawmakers 'Elect' Hamza Shehbaz CM Punjab At Faletti's Hotel

With Punjab Assembly Sealed, Opposition Lawmakers 'Elect' Hamza Shehbaz CM Punjab At Faletti's Hotel
After the Punjab Assembly sealed using barbed wire and the main entrance locked, opposition lawmakers convened a session at Faletti's Hotel in Lahore, ‘electing’ Hamza Shehbaz from the PML-N as Chief Minister of Punjab. Even though Speaker Parvez Elahi and Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari were not present on the occasion, the opposition claims its candidate has won.

The session was presided over by PPP MPA Shazia Abid, who cited the Rules of Procedure of the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab 1997, which allows a member of the panel of chairmen to preside over a session of the provincial assembly in the absence of the speaker and deputy speaker. Despite the refusal of the erstwhile ruling PTI to accept these proceedings, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz has tweeted that the session was not merely ‘symbolic’. “God willing, the PML-N is going to prove its majority,” she stated on Twitter.