President Arif Alvi has directed Punjab Governor Omer Sarfraz Cheema to continue to hold the office of the Governor till the final decision being made on the summary moved for his removal from the office, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

https://twitter.com/PresOfPakistan/status/1515981287953215490

Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif using his discretionary powers removed Punjab Governor Umar Sarfraz Cheema from his post. 

On the other hand, Punjab Governor Cheema addressing the press conference maintained that constitutionally, the Prime Minister had no discretionary powers to remove him from governorship but only the President of Pakistan can notify in this regard.

Umar Sarfraz said as per the constitution, to remove him from the governorship, the Prime Minister will send the summary and then the President will notify.

PMLN candidate Hamza Shehbaz Sharif became Chief Minister of Punjab by scoring 197 votes amid the highly-charged session where both sides blamed each other for disrupting the session’s proceedings. 

Speaker Punjab Assembly Pervez Elahi claimed that N-league lawmakers tortured him and ‘fractured’ his arm and said that PMLN brought back the politics of the 1990s. 

However, PMLN Rana Mashood Ahmed Khan along with Atta Ullah Tarrar refused the allegations and alleged that outsiders were brought into the assembly hall by the Pervez Elahi. 

Pertinent to note that the session to elect the new Leader of the House was only possible when elite force, Punjab police personnel managed to enter into the Punjab assembly Hall and in the protection of security personnel, the deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly, Dost Muhammad Mazari, conducted the proceedings and vote count was held. Mazari had also registered a case in which he claimed that PTI lawmakers inflicted torture on him and barred the PA proceedings to elect new CM. 

 Reporter Awais Kiyani