Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb has denied reports that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had decided to take a vote of confidence from the National Assembly.

“The PM has not decided to take a vote of confidence,” Marriyum tweeted, “no such consultation was done, nor is it needed.”

She added that Shehbaz took the vote he needed on April 11 of last year.

Reports had claimed on Monday that PM Shehbaz had decided to take a vote of confidence from the National Assembly on April 27.

The reports had said that consultations with party leader Nawaz Sharif have been completed. A cabinet meeting has been called on Wednesday to discuss the political situation in the country as well.

A total of 172 votes would need to be secured to prove that Shehbaz still enjoys confidence of the house.

The move comes in the middle of a tense political atmosphere, as elections to the dissolved assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa continue to be the center of political discourse.

The Supreme Court has asked political parties to negotiate a solution acceptable to everyone, but the ruling alliance itself is reportedly split on whether PTI should be engaged with.

Court remarks about Shehbaz’s strength in parliament

“… the Prime Minister must enjoy the confidence of the majority of the National Assembly at all times.“

The Supreme Court dismissed requests by the Ministry of Defence and the Election Commission of Pakistan to delay elections to October in its order of April 19. But it also took up the question of parliament rejecting bills for issuing election funds.

The court was told that the State Bank had allocated the funds for the elections, but the cabinet had sent the matter to the parliament where it had been rejected.

When the considering the matter of how this bill was rejected, the order said, “In terms of the system of parliamentary democracy envisaged by the Constitution the Government of the day must command the confidence of the majority of the National Assembly at all times.” The order also extended this to the fact that the PM must enjoy the confidence of the house.

It then extended the matter of holding that confidence to the passage of getting bills passed in the parliament.

“It follows from the foregoing (and this is an important constitutional convention) that the Government of the day must be able to secure the passage of all financial measures that it submits before the National Assembly.”

The order then said that the fact that the rejection of election funding could have ‘serious constitutional implications’, the main one being that PM Shehbaz Sharif had lost the confidence of the house.

If the confidence of the house in Shehbaz Sharif is intact, the order said, then the failure to get funding approved from parliament could be regarded as ‘anomalous’.