PESHAWAR: In the wake of serious developments on the political front at the Centre, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has ruled out the dissolution of provincial assembly at the moment, claiming that he has not received any instructions from the prime minister in this regard.

KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who has the constitutional authority to advise the KP governor for dissolving the assembly, told Dawn on Sunday afternoon that he had just returned from a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan. He said the premier had not given him any directive for dissolution of the provincial assembly.

“Under the constitutional scheme of things, I am the one who would be sending the advice to the governor, to dissolve the provincial assembly, but that there is no such scene at the moment,” he said.

“As of now, no decision has been made so far,” he reiterated.

Following the abrupt dissolution of the National Assembly by the President of Pakistan on the PM’s advice and sudden change of Punjab governor amid political turmoil in the largest province, speculations were making the rounds about future of the provincial assemblies.

Constitution’s Article 112 (1) provides for dissolution of a provincial assembly if so advised by the chief minister, and the provincial assembly shall, unless sooner dissolved, should stand dissolved at the expiration of 48 hours after CM’s advice.

Currently there is no immediate threat of a vote of no-confidence against CM Khan as the PTI has the support of 94 members in the 145-member KP Assembly.

Despite a recent claim made by Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial president Najmuddin Khan that they would be bringing a no-trust motion against the chief minister soon, because they had the support of many disgruntled PTI MPAs, no such revolt in the ruling party is visible here so far.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2022