LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said a new constitutional crisis is emerging in Punjab as court could declare Hamza Shehbaz’s election as chief minister illegal and order fresh poll for the post.

He was addressing the media on Tuesday after a goods transporters body announced its support for his son Zain Qureshi in the by-elections to be held in PP-217, Multan.

Mr Qureshi said 25 out of total 197 PTI MPAs were disqualified on the order of Supreme Court and the number of the party lawmakers would be 173 after notification about five reserved seats, if election for chief minister’s office was declared illegal and re-poll called.

He said the 11-party government was also shaking as it was formed with only two votes’ majority. Now all the government allies were angry and those who had left Imran Khan were regretting their decision.

He said JUI-F chief Fazalur Rehman was not accepting the results of the local bodies elections in Sindh and his son Asad Rehman was criticising Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on bank interest issue.

He said the PPP violated the agreement with the MQM and Aslam Bhottani was also annoyed over not getting the promised share in the annual development budget for his constituency.

Mr Qureshi said all the allied parties were showing mistrust on each other and their “unnatural alliance” would soon collapse.

He said on the other hand, high inflation and petrol prices had made the life of the people difficult and they would soon stage protests against the unchecked price hike all over the country.

PTI vice chairman said the government had announced 15 percent raise in salaries, but imposed Rs80 billion taxes on the people, besides 10 percent tax on the industry.

He said the country’s economy was going to default under this regime and due to the crash of the stock exchange the investors lost billions of rupees.

Mr Qureshi demanded early general elections to fix the economy.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2022