ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court declared Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari’s ruling in the Punjab Chief Minister election unlawful and asked Pervez Elahi to take oath of chief minister of Punjab tonight at 11:30pm.
The court also directed Hamza Shehbaz to vacate office of chief minister immediately.
Chaudhary Pervez Elahi obtained 186 votes while Hamza Shehbaz secured 179 votes in the re-election of the Punjab chief minister. However, deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari cancelled 10 votes of PML-Q MPAs and declared winner to Hamza Shehbaz.
The lawyers of the government boycott the proceedings of the Supreme Court as the court rejected government’s plea of forming a full bench to hear this case.
Chief Justice of Pakistan announced the short order on Monday night. Earlier Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial had said that the judgement would be issued at 5:45pm and later it was scheduled to be announced at 7:30pm. However, the verdict was announced after a three-hour delay via short order.
The bench also ordered that Punjab Governor Baligh ur Rehman administer the oat to Elahi at 11:30pm. It also declared that any appointments made by Hamza Shahbaz are illegal. The Supreme Court further said that if Punjab Governor is not available for administering oath, President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi will administer the oath tonight.
The proceedings went on for three days — Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday — as lawyers from all the parties presented their arguments.
Elahi — who had been defeated by Hamza Shahbaz on July 22 during the Punjab CM’s election after 10 PML-Q votes were rejected by Deputy Speaker Mazari — had challenged the ruling in the SC.
The SC formed a three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, included Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan — to hear the case, but the coalition government objected to it and demanded a full court take up the matter as they did not want “bench-fixing”.
However, after hearing arguments from all sides for nearly eight hours on Monday, the SC decided not to form a full court bench, saying that the same bench would hear the case.
As the SC decided not to form a full bench, the ruling coalition and the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) decided to boycott the apex court’s hearing.
