LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shahbaz has approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday seeking its intervention in holding elections for Punjab’s new chief minister in a ‘fair and transparent’ manner.
First, the LHC registrar raised objections over the petition, stating that assembly proceedings could not be challenged. However, PML-N counsel Azam Nazir Tarar asked for the petition to still be fixed for hearing, saying they will give arguments on the objection as well.
The petition named the province of Punjab through its chief secretary, the PA speaker and deputy speaker, and the provincial police chief as respondents.
In his petition, Hamza urged the court to direct concerned authorities to convene a session of the Punjab Assembly after fulfillment of due requirements and hold voting for the chief minister’s post without any delay.
The petition also requested the court to declare actions – adjourning the session, sealing the premises, and stopping lawmakers from voting – illegal. The post of the chief minister has been vacant since April 1 but elections were being delayed to elect a new chief executive, the petition read.
It stated that the inaction in holding elections for the post was “based on mala fide, with [the] intent to defeat the mandatory constitutional requirements, making political gains by using public office(s) and authority is evidently inchoate; arbitrary; unreasonable; irrational and without jurisdiction”.
The plea also sought the convening of the session at the earliest and election for the post of the CM without any adjournments. It also requested the court to ensure there would be no obstruction during the voting for the election of the CM.
“The matter is of great public importance relatable to enforcement of several fundamental rights of the citizens of the province, including the petitioner. Therefore, the petitioner seeks kind indulgence of this court, to issue the declarations and directions prayed above,” it concluded.
The Punjab Assembly (PA) has to elect the new leader of the house after Usman Buzdar resigned last month. PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and PML-N’s Hamza, who has secured the support of PTI’s dissident lawmakers — the Jahangir Khan Tarin and Aleem Khan groups — are expected to go head to head in the race to become the next chief minister.
The session was summoned on April 2, 2022, for the election on the CM’s post contested by Hamza and PML-Q senior leader and PA Speaker Chaudhary Pervaiz Elahi. The election was supposed to take place on April 3 but the session was adjourned after a ruckus.
Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari adjourned the proceedings till April 6. However, on April 5, the PA secretariat issued a notification extending the sitting date of the House to April 16. But later another order was issued stating the house will meet on April 6.
Later, the PA’s secretary and other administrative officers on the orders of the speaker sealed the PA and none of the lawmakers were allowed to enter the building of the assembly. The PML-N and its allies held a symbolic session at a local hotel in Lahore wherein Hamza was selected as the chief minister.
No-confidence resolution against PA speaker
On Thursday, the opposition submitted a no-confidence motion against Elahi, who is also the PA speaker, further squeezing space for the provincial government to play its cards.
After the apex court’s decision yesterday, where it nullified the National Assembly deputy speaker’s ruling on the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the ruling coalition in Punjab has once again warned its MPAs against voting for the opposition’s nominee for the CM slot, Hamza Shehbaz, or they would be de-seated.
“We also urge the apex court to take note of ‘open buying’ of the PTI lawmakers by the PML-N. We hope for a strong decision on the presidential reference on Article 63-A of the Constitution,” said Fayyazul Hasan Chohan, the newly appointed spokesperson for the PA speaker.
