According to Geo News, the PML-Q leader wanted to meet ECP chief at a private location, but the request was denied. CM Elahi had attempted to meet the CEC through a former bureaucrat.
The report quoted sources as saying that the agenda of the meeting would have been ECP's stay order on the removal of Chaudhry Shujaat as the PML-Q chief.
Following Shujaat-Elahi rift, the party's Punjab secretary Kamil Ali Agha had removed Shujaat as the chair. The top electoral authority had later issued a stay on the matter.
It is worth mentioning that Muhammad Khan Bhatti, CM's principal secretary, earlier told ECP chief over a phone call about the provincial government's willingness to appoint or remove any officer who he points at, to which he received Raja's warning.
When contacted, a former bureaucrat close to Elahi confirmed he had conveyed a message to the CEC on behalf of the CM sometime ago.
Last month, the Lahore High Court reinstated Parvez Elahi as Punjab’s Chief Minister and his Cabinet after the assurance by the latter that he won’t advise the dissolution of the assembly without securing the vote of confidence first.
The order was passed after the PML-Q leader gave the guarantee to the court, bringing days of intense wrangling to an end.
Following the decision, Sanaullah had said that the court had only given an interim relief to the PML-Q leader. According to him, the LHC would give its verdict on 11 January after listening to both parties.
Analysts say CM Elahi could find it difficult to retain chief ministership amid the opposition’s move. He requires 186 votes to win the confidence of the House.
They also say that PTI chairman and former premier Imran Khan was unlikely to dissolve the provincial assemblies, whereas a decision to resign en-masse would also prove fatal for the former ruling party.
Among 371 members, he may have the support of 180 members from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and 10 from Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid.