Punjab provincial assembly: PTI protests against mandate ‘theft’
Protests have been held in major cities across Pakistan to denounce what they called a "theft" of the mandate of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's party in the Punjab provincial assembly.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Friday lost a key vote in the local assembly in Pakistan's most populous Punjab province, despite winning a by-election there earlier this week.
The vote was held to determine whether the province's sitting chief minister – Hamza Sharbaz Sharif, the son of the country's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – enjoyed the backing of the majority of legislators in the local parliament.
Twenty seats were up for grabs in the Punjab by-election. The bloc won 15 of the seats in the 371-member provincial assembly, with Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) taking four, and one going to an independent.
In Friday's vote, Khan's candidate for chief minister, Parvez Elahi, initially won 186 votes but the provincial assembly's deputy speaker, Dost Muhammad Mazari, invalidated 10 of those votes over violations of voting regulations.
Under Pakistani law, votes are disqualified if legislators vote contrary to their party's instructions.
In the end, Hamza won 179 votes, retaining his post. He was yesterday sworn in as chief minister.
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