SC to resume hearing on Punjab CM re-election shortly - Pakistan

After rejecting the government's plea for a full court bench yesterday, the Supreme Court will shortly resume hearing petitions related to the recently held Punjab chief minister’s re-election. The proceedings will commence at 11:30am, which the coalition said it would boycott in protest. A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar, will hear arguments on the ruling of Punjab Assembly's Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari, which proved to be instrumental to Hamza Shehbaz's victory. During the re-election, Mazari had decided against counting the votes of 10 PML-Q lawmakers, which were cast in Elahi’s favour, citing a letter written by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in which he had instructed them to vote for Hamza instead. This handed Read: Key takeaways from SC’s order on Elahi’s plea on Punjab CM election During the hearing on Saturday, the court had allowed Hamza — who was re-elected on July 22 — to remain “trustee” chief minister till July 25. Yesterday, the government requested for the constitution of a full bench during the hearing of a petition filed by PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi challenging the CM election. The plea was, however, rejected as the CJP ruled that the full court would mean resumption of the case hearing not before September due to unavailability of judges amid current vacation. “But we can’t allow such state of affairs to drag and prolong,” Justice Bandial had said. Subsequently, to register its protest against the SC's decision, the ruling alliance in a late-night conference announced that it will boycott the judicial proceeding.

The election

During the election on Friday, Mazari rejected all 10 votes cast by the PML-Q on the pretext that they had violated the orders of their party chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, citing a letter he received from the patriarch which said he was asking his party lawmakers to back Hamza. After counting the polled votes, the deputy speaker announced that Elahi bagged 186 votes, while Hamza could get 179 votes. However, he refrained from declaring Elahi the chief minister. Instead, he indicated that as party chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s instructions to PML-Q members to vote for Hamza instead of Elahi held greater sway. The deputy speaker then announced that Hamza had won the election of chief minister, since the 10 deducted votes reduced Elahi’s tally to 176, while Hamza remained on top with 179.

Elahi’s plea

In his petition, Elahi has requested the court to hold the deputy speaker’s ruling leading to Hamza’s re-election as “bogus and false”. “Hamza Shehbaz may kindly be declared disqualified as the Punjab chief minister/ member of the provincial assembly,” the petition read. It requested the court to declare the deputy speaker’s decision to discard the votes of 10 PML-Q lawmakers on grounds of Article 63-A of the Constitution as “unconstitutional”. Instead, the petition said, the court may declare Elahi the “lawful returned candidate” and the PML-Q leader be allowed to take oath as the Punjab chief minister. The petition further stated that Hamza should be restrained from taking the oath as the chief minister. It is pertinent to mention that Hamza had already been administered the oath of office by Punjab Governor Baleeghur Rehman earlier on Friday.

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