ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi has returned Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s summary for removing the Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema after raising an objection, a private TV channel reported on Saturday.
Shehbaz Sharif had advised President, Dr. Arif Alvi, to remove Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema in a summary sent to the President’s House on April 15.
Governor Cheema had taken the oath of his office on April 3 by the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government after Chaudhry Sarwar was removed from the post over the accusations of persuading Aleem Khan Group to vote in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Hamza Shahbaz.
As the Punjab governor, Cheema had termed the resignation of Usman Buzdar ‘unconstitutional’ as the former governor accepted the resignation despite it being not handwritten as per the Constitution which should be addressed to the governor.
Governor Cheema had also raised objections over the election of Hamza Shahbaz as the Punjab chief minister and termed it ‘unconstitutional’ as well.
The governor had also refused to administer the oath to Punjab CM-elect Hamza Shahbaz and in a letter to the president regarding the constitutional crisis, he sought the interpretation of the constitutional points after holding consultations with the legal experts regarding the two contradictory orders of the high court given on April 22 and 27.
It is worth mentioning hear that after being delayed for weeks, Hamza Shehbaz was sworn-in on Saturday as Chief Minister Punjab. Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf administered his oath over the order of Lahore High Court after Governor of Punjab Cheema refused to administer the same.
