On Friday, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry announced that the federal government has ousted Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar from his position and appointed Omer Sarfraz Cheema in his stead.
The announcement came just hours before a crucial session of the National Assembly on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s no-confidence motion, as well as a session of the Punjab Assembly to elect a new leader of the house following Usman Buzdar’s resignation.
The federal government’s decision to remove Sarwar was not immediately evident, and the information minister, who announced the action on Twitter, did not offer an explanation.
During the period. The new governor would be announced later, according to the ministry. “According to the Constitution,” he stated, “the deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly would be the acting governor.”
Later, he announced that Cheema, the PTI’s former communication secretary, had been selected as the next governor of Punjab.
Sarwar is a former member of the British parliament who left Glasgow in 2013 to serve in Pakistan. He joined the PML-N and was appointed Punjab governor after the party won the 2013 general elections in both the centre and Punjab.
He did, however, resign from the governorship of Punjab in January 2015 and promptly joined the PTI. He was sworn in as governor for the second time in September 2018.
Meanwhile, the new governor of Punjab is a founding member of the PTI. He joined the party in April 1996 and was its central information secretary for five years before becoming the chairman’s spokesperson for a brief while in 2015. He has also served as the party’s Punjab deputy organiser.