Pakistan’s Punjab Assembly session for CM election postponed to April 16

Lahore [Pakistan], April 5 (ANI): The crucial session of the Punjab Assembly (PA) for the election of the next chief minister, scheduled for April 6, has been postponed to April 16, local media reported citing a notification issued by the assembly secretariat on Tuesday.
According to the notification, PA Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari moved the assembly session to the rescheduled date at 11.30 am, reported the Dawn newspaper.
Notably, the session was originally scheduled for Wednesday at 11.30 am after Sunday’s session was adjourned amid ruckus by the opposition and government lawmakers.
The session, aimed at electing the new leader of the house, is expected to witness a tough fight between PML-Q’s PTI-backed Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz
In order to be elected as a chief minister in the 371-member house, a candidate will need at least 186 votes, according to the media outlet.
Meanwhile, PTI workers on Monday besieged a hotel in Gulberg where hundreds of PML-N MPAs were staying besides the defiant lawmakers of the ruling PTI.
Shouting slogans against their party fellows inside the hotel, they demanded the PML-N ‘release’ their lawmakers – said to be around 20 of them, according to the media outlet.
As the charged workers tried to forcibly enter the hotel, some PML-N lawmakers also started raising slogans against Imran Khan, further deteriorating the situation.
Further, the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz has claimed that the PA deputy speaker might suspend over 40 opposition as well as PTI dissident lawmakers to prevent them from voting in the crucial session.
He also warned Imran Khan against considering Pakistan his personal property by indulging in unconstitutional acts. (ANI)