ISLAMABAD: PML-N firm to retain Punjab after July 22 debacle of election for Chief Minister as ordered by Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The announcement made by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and may inners of the PTI have also given hints that so many MPAs are not ready to vote for Parvaiz Elahi as Chief Minister. This makes things worst for sitting speaker of Punjab Assembly.
The PTI, after making inroads in Punjab in a landslide victory in Sunday’s provincial assembly by-polls, is now aiming to dethrone Hamza Shehbaz as the Punjab chief minister,
The PML-N, which rules both Punjab and the Centre, faced a defeat despite enjoying support from a mighty nine-party coalition.
Theoretically, the stars should have been more aligned for the PML-N given the fact that many of the independents, now with the PML-N, had actually won in the 2018 elections.
The PTI’s victory has not only dealt a blow to PML-N’s narrative of performance in Punjab but has also turned the tables on the politics of electables.
Currently, the PML-N’s combined strength is 175 and with three more votes PML-N’s total tally will rise to 178, while the PTI on its own will have a strength of 178, excluding the vote of estranged PTI MPA also the deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari.
With 10 more votes of PML-Q, Elahi’s victory is certain.
The victory in the political heartland will throw the PML-N-led government in the Centre into throes of uncertainty as losing Punjab will mean having no government in any province of their own.
The PPP – a coalition partner – will nonetheless have its government in Sindh but the party leading coalition, PML-N, will have no provincial government, limiting its horizons practically only to the federal capital.
The new course will make things more complicated for the ruling alliance in the Centre to confront the PTI with power both in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Read more: Rana admits defeat; says many MPAs not vote for Parvaiz Elahi on July 22
