In the midst of a worsening economic crisis, Pakistan’s top court has decided to give control of Punjab, the nation’s most populous province, to a candidate supported by the country’s former prime minister Imran Khan.
The action increases pressure on the federal government, formed up of a coalition of parties that ousted Khan from his position as premier in April, as it works to enact stringent economic reforms that are unpopular but necessary to avert a financial crisis.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court concluded in a brief ruling that Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, a Khan-backed candidate for Punjab’s chief minister, had been unfairly denied victory in a ballot last week, and it commanded that he be appointed as the province’s premier before Tuesday midnight.
Elahi was sworn in by President Arif Alvi at the presidential residence in Islamabad, according to a Wednesday story in Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
Balighur Rehman, the governor of Punjab, declined to do the job, forcing Elahi to hastily travel from Lahore to the federal capital, according to the story.
