LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly has been dissolved after Governor Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Mahmud signed the summary sent by Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif for the dissolution of the provincial Assembly on Wednesday, Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported.
With the dissolution of Punjab Assemblies, now all the provincial assemblies of the country stand dissolved.
The provincial assemblies of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan were dissolved on March 19, while the National Assembly stood dissolved at 12:00 midnight Saturday after completing of its five-year term under Article-52 of the Constitution.
Following the dissolution of Punjab Assembly, general elections for national and provincial assemblies will be held on the same day (May 11) as announced by President Asif Ali Zardari earlier in the day.
Though Punjab Assembly has now been dissolved but there still remains a deadlock between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) over the issue of caretaker chief minister.
The PML-N has proposed Justice (Retd) Amir Raza and former federal secretary Khawaja Zaheer for the slot, while the PPP has proposed three names – Asma Jahangir, Mian Amir Mehmood and Hefeez Akhtar Randhawa. Interestingly, Asma and Mian Amir have already turned down the role of a caretaker.
If the deadlock persists after three days of the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly, then the speaker will form a six-member committee – with three members from both the opposition and the government – to decide the matter. If the committee, too, fails to evolve a consensus, the matter will go to the Election Commission.
DND
