The Punjab Governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmud on Wednesday dissolved the Punjab Assembly on the advice of the Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif.

Earlier in the day, PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif had advised his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif to send an advice to the Governor for Assembly’s dissolution.Opposition Leader Ch Nisar was opposed to dissolution of Punjab Assembly and had linked its premature dissolution to putting in place of neutral caretaker governments in Sindh and Balochistan in consultation with what he would call ‘a genuine Opposition’.Punjab Governor reportedly did not waste a moment to sign Chief Minister’s summary as he was waiting for the same to land in his office for quite some time.

The provincial Cabinet has been de-notified while Shahbaz Sharif will continue to act as Chief Minister till selection of a caretaker CM.With the dissolution of Punjab legislature, the process of dissolution of all Provincial Assemblies has been completed. The National Assembly ceased to exist on March 17th after completion of its full term. The Provincial Assemblies had to be dissolved a bit earlier than their scheduled completion of term to ensure timely elections to all the legislatures on the same day.

As the Punjab Assembly stands dissolved now, the Chief Minister and the Opposition leader have got three days (from March 21 to 23) to evolve consensus over the name of caretaker Chief Minister.The matter would go to the Parliamentary Committee next day if the two fail to agree over one name within the stipulated period.The Committee would also have three days to pick up one name, and if it also fails, the Provincial Election Commissioner would announce his nominee within two days from amongst the names sent to it by the two sides.