Newly-elected members of the Punjab Assembly have taken the oath, 24News HD TV Channel reported on Thursday.
According to the report, the Election Commission of Pakistan has issued a notification of their success in the by-elections held on July 17.
But, the notification of the success of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Raja Sagheer from PP-7 Kahuta has not been issued.
After taking the oath of the PTI’s 15 MPAs and PML-N’s three MPAs, the number of seats of the PTI has been reached 178 while 10 MPAs of the Quaid League are also in alliance with it so the total strength of the opposition crossed the score of required majority in Punjab Assembly to win the Chief Ministership for its candidate Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Friday.
On the other hand, the sitting government has a total strength of 180 in the House under the chief ministership of Hamza Shehbaz.
The election of the Leader of the House will be held tomorrow (Friday) afternoon at four o'clock. The preparations for the election have been completed by the Assembly Secretariat, and Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Mazari will preside over the meeting.
Interestingly, PTI’s MPA Masood Majeed is abroad while Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari cannot cast his vote. So the PTI’s candidate has a total of 186 votes in the House.
On the other hand, the ruling Nawaz League’s MPAs Jalil Sharaqpuri and Faisal Niazi have given resigned two days ago while Raja Sagheer, the candidate of the Nawaz League from PP-7 Rawalpindi was successful, but the notification has not yet been issued.
By adding the newly elected three members, the number of members of the Muslim League-N becomes 168. Nawaz League also has the support of 7 members of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), 4 Independent Members and 1 member of Rah-e-Haq Party, thus Hamza Shehbaz has the support of 180 members.
Pertinent to mention here that Chaudhry Nisar, who is considered close to Shahbaz Sharif has not been taken a decision yet. The PML-N is trying to convince Ch Nisar and Jalil Sharaqpuri to support Hamza Shehbaz in CM elections.