Race for Punjab chief ministership: Elahi dares to accept tough challenge

ISLAMABAD: The burden to produce at least 186 lawmakers in his favour to get himself elected as the Punjab chief minister lies on the shoulders of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who has been nominated for the top executive slot by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The situation in the Punjab legislature is in contrast to the scenario in the National Assembly where the opposition parties are saddled with the responsibility of presenting 172 members in favour of their no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

At the federal level, the PTI’s effort is to ask its MPs not to attend the session when voting on the no-trust motion will take place and make every attempt to stop them from being present during these proceedings. On the other hand, the sponsors of the resolution will attempt to ensure the maximum attendance in favour of their move.

Conversely, in the Punjab assembly, the PTI and PMLQ will endeavour to make sure that a highest number of lawmakers are in attendance in favour of the election of Pervaiz Elahi. The opposition parties will struggle to prevent its legislators and supporters from staying away the exercise.

The situation keeps changing due to the-spur-of-the moment decisions of the parliamentary parties, but as things now, it will be a case of touch and go both in the national and Punjab assemblies unless a dramatic development takes place.

Pervaiz Elahi’s sudden decision to accept the prime minister’s offer to be the next chief minister has landed him in a huge test to prove his majority with the backing of the PTI. The Punjab assembly has quite a number of factions showing loyalties to different leaders including Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan.

What would be keenly watched would be who would be in the boxing ring from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) side against Pervaiz Elahi and to which side the groups led by Tareen and Aleem Khan will finally go. If Tareen has no love lost for the PMLN, he has similar sentiments against Pervaiz Elahi. Aleem Khan too does not enjoy cordial relations with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. It will be revealed now whether or not Aleem Khan’s recent lengthy meeting with PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif in London has swung him towards the Sharifs fully.

A lot will depend on the candidate to be fielded by the PMLN. The names of Hamza Shehbaz and Aleem Khan have been cited by some party leaders in this connection. It will make the match very interesting and nail-biting.

If the five PMLN dissidents, who had publicly dissociated themselves from the party a long time ago, vote for Pervaiz Elahi as some of them have announced, their fate will be no different from that of a cluster of PTI’s federal legislators, who have openly rebelled against the party provided they support the no-trust motion against Imran Khan.

The numbers game is very dicey in the Punjab assembly. If all the PTI rebels [nearly two dozen and a half] or even a majority of them, who have close contacts with the PMLN on the promise of being awarded its tickets in the next elections, act against Pervaiz Elahi, it will become quite difficult for him to get elected.

Pervaiz Elahi's decision has apparently irked Asif Ali Zardari, and the PPP will not support him. However, it is known that the PPP and PMLQ have always had excellent relations, and Zardari had been pushing the PMLN to opt for Pervaiz Elahi as the opposition parties’ candidate for the chief minister’s berth. However, the PMLN was reluctant for its own reasons. Not only the PPP and PMLN are co-sponsors of the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan but have strengthened their cooperation over the past some time, vowing to work together in future as well.

In the 371-member provincial house, the PMLN has 165 lawmakers including five defectors while the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party has a solitary vote in the legislature. The PMLQ has ten legislators and the PTI has 183 members. Of the five independents, Ms Jugnu Mohsin has recently announced her support for the PMLN. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is expected to maintain his independent status and will refrain from backing any side. Both parties will be wooing the remaining three independents to win their support

When Pervaiz Elahi was elected speaker of the Punjab assembly, he had secured 201 votes, and it had become apparent then that he got 15 additional votes over and above the strengths of the PTI and PMLQ. On the other hand, Usman Buzdar had clinched only 186 votes, which was the minimum required tally for his election as the chief minister.