Supreme Court summons deputy speaker on Elahi’s petition after deputy speaker decided not to count PML-Q votes
Hamza Shahbaz, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, took oath as the new chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province a day after crucial and contentious elections.
Hamza Shahbaz, the son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was re-elected chief minister of Punjab by three votes after Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari rejected all 10 votes cast by the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on the pretext that they had violated the orders of their party chief.
After counting the votes, the deputy speaker announced that Parvez Elahi bagged 186 votes, while Hamza Shehbaz could get 179 votes. But in a shock move, he told the house that he has received a letter from PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat who directed all 10 party MPAs (including the candidate himself) to vote for PML-N candidate Hamza.
Mazari said he personally phoned Shujaat to verify the contents of the message. In light of this conversation, he declared: “I disregard all 10 votes polled by PML-Q MPAs as they violated the party president’s instructions, in line with the ruling of the Supreme Court”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked the PPP co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, his family and associates for supporting Hamza Shahbaz as chief minister of Punjab.
Petition filed against re-election
The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi have challenged Hamza’s election in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Elahi requested the court to hold the deputy speaker’s ruling leading to Hamza’s re-election as “bogus and false”. The petition read that “Hamza Shehbaz may kindly be declared disqualified as the Punjab chief minister/ member of the provincial assembly.”
All eyes are on the Supreme Court: Imran Khan
“I am in shock at what happened in the Punjab Assembly,” Khan said in a video address late Friday.
“All eyes are on the Supreme Court. I am not a lawyer but legal experts told me that it has been clearly stated in Article 63-A that the parliamentary party’s head issues instructions for vote. Chaudhry Shujaat is not parliamentary head; he is the party head.”
According to Article 63-A of the constitution, a parliamentarian can be disqualified on grounds of defection if he or she “votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the parliamentary party to which he belongs, in relation to election of the prime minister or chief minister; or a vote of confidence or a vote of no-confidence; or a money bill or a Constitution (amendment) bill.”