LAHORE: Even though his son tweeted their administration’s support for Imran Khan’s strategy soon after the PTI chief announced it during a public meeting on Saturday night, it seems Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi may not have been consulted on the move in advance.

Earlier in the day, in an interaction with a delegation from the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Mr Elahi had confidently stated: “The Punjab government is intact and will complete its term.”

A statement issued by the CM Secretariat quoted him as saying that “Allah Almighty has bestowed an authority on him and… no one can snatch it”.

The statement came just hours before Mr Khan, from his stage in Rawalpindi, announced that he would be consulting Punjab and KP chief ministers on the question of dissolution.

Even after Mooni Elahi’s subsequent tweet on the matter, the Punjab chief minister did not come on the record.

Earlier, during his meeting with the APNS delegation, the chief minister said the incumbent government was making a lot of effort to ensure the welfare of people as their intentions were pure and they were heading in the right direction.

“We have been given an opportunity and we are serving the masses,” he said, adding that their good intentions were bearing fruit. On the occasion, the chief minister ordered that the remaining dues of newspapers be cleared within a month, adding that regional newspapers would be allocated a 25 per cent advertisement quota and be allocated coloured advertisements.

APNS President Sarmad Ali acknowledged that Mr Elahi was a media-friendly chief minister and had always supported newspapers, while member Khushnood Ali Khan remarked that ever since he has taken over, payments to newspapers have started coming through.

APNS vice-presidents Jamil Athar and Shahab Zubairi, secretary-general Nazafreen Saigol-Lakhani, joint secretary Mohsin Bilal, secretary finance Muhammad Awais Khushnood, Mujeebur Rehman Shami, Syed Sajjad Bukhari, Mumtaz A. Tahir, Saba Omer Yousaf, Muhammad Younas Mehr, Syed Mumtaz Ahmed Shah, Qasim Ali, Syed Muhammad Munir Jillani, Omer Mujeeb Shami, Hamayun Gulzar, Dr Tanvir A. Tahir besides others were present in the meeting.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2022