LAHORE, April 18: The Punjab assembly on Friday reposed confidence in Chief Minister Dost Mohammad Khosa with a huge majority as the opposition boycotted the proceedings.

The PML-Q forward bloc comprising 27 members abstained from voting.

Forward bloc leader Najaf Sial told Dawn members of the group were ready to vote for Mr Khosa but they were not approached by the treasury.

Mr Khosa got 264 of the 354 votes as nine members of the ruling coalition alliance, comprising the PML-N, PPP, PML-F and MMA, failed to turn up in time to take part in the process.

The house witnessed chaos before the resolution for trust vote was tabled as treasury and opposition members ignored repeated requests of Speaker Rana Mohammad Iqbal Khan to maintain order.

The commotion started when Chaudhry Zaheerud Din, claiming to be the leader of opposition although the speaker is yet to name a person for the office, asked on a point of order if the chief minister was seeking confidence vote to raise the price of flour, an allusion to the Rs5 per kg hike in flour price recommended by the new provincial government a day earlier.

The house echoed with the slogans of “Go Musharraf Go”.The opposition walked out of the house in protest after the point of order was declared invalid by the chair.

Senior Minister Raja Riaz Ahmad, on a direction of the speaker, made an abortive attempt to bring the opposition back to the house.

In his address to the house after securing the trust vote, Mr Khosa announced withdrawal of all political cases and said that administration cost would be cut to allocate more funds for development projects, standard of state-run schools would be raised, the system of extending contracts of retired employees would be done away with and use of multiple vehicles by bureaucrats would be banned.

He said that providing education and health services and employment opportunities would be the top priority of his government.