The issue surrounding Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi’s vote of confidence has been settled, remarked a Lahore High Court judge as a full five-member bench of the LHC resumed hearing CM Elahi’s plea against the Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman’s order to denotify him as the provincial chief executive.

The hearing resumed following high drama and tense proceedings of the Punjab Assembly, which continued for several hours on Wednesday, where CM Elahi remained successful in securing a vote of confidence, amid boycott by the opposition.

He secured 186 votes, the magic number, required to prove simple majority in the House of 371, whereas the opposition boycotted the polling process and left the assembly hall in protest.

During the hearing today, Justice Abid Aziz Shaikh inquired whether the governor was satisfied with the vote of confidence, to which his lawyer said that the record of the trust vote should be made part of the court’s records.

Justice Abid asked Elahi’s lawyer, Barrister Ali Zafar, for his opinion. “The floor test is done, would you insist on hearing this plea?” he asked.

Barrister Zafar said he would want to give brief arguments. “We have [the] votes, this is a matter of principle. The governor should have given reasons,” the lawyer argued.

The lawyer said that the application had in any case now become ineffective, but reiterated that the denotification order by the Punjab governor was not in accordance with the law.

Justice Abid remarked that one issue had been resolved after the trust vote was taken under Article 137, but the issue that remained was whether the governor’s denotification order was correct or not.

This is a developing story and is being updated with more detail.