LHC rejects pleas for ‘early’ election of new Punjab CM

Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday rejected the pleas of PML-N leader Hamza Shehbaz and Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari for holding an early election for the chief minister (CM) office.

LHC announced the reserved verdict on the petitions of Hamza Shehbaz and Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari while Speaker Pervaiz Elahi’s petition to implead him as a respondent was also approved.

The court ordered the deputy speaker to hold the election on April 16. It also directed all respondents to impartially comply with their duties.

The court also ordered to repair the damaged property of the assembly before 11am on the election day while instructing the assembly staff to offer full co-operation.

Hamza and Mazari had sought the judiciary’s intervention in holding an early election for the Punjab CM office. Meanwhile, Elahi had pleaded with the court to order the recovery of the government’s MPAs who were allegedly held hostage by PML-N in a hotel of Lahore’s Gulberg area in a bid to change their loyalties.

However, PML-N had rejected the allegations and said the MPAs had decided to support Hamza Shehbaz of their own will. PTI supporters had also staged a protest against alleged ‘horse-trading’ after which the lawmakers were shifted to a hotel in the cantonment area.

Punjab is without a chief minister since April 1 when ex-governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar accepted Usman Buzdar’s resignation.

Moving court against the delay in the election, Hamza Shehbaz made Punjab Assembly Speaker Parvaiz Elahi, who is the other candidate for CM, Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, and Punjab Inspector General (IG) Rao Sardar Ali Khan respondents.

In the last proceeding, LHC had ordered the reopening of the office of the deputy speaker, whose powers were taken away by the speaker after he joined the opposition benches ahead of the election.

The court had given this order after stakeholders had failed to reach a mutual agreement on the date of the election.

Read more: ‘Important record of Punjab Assembly allegedly ruined or moved to unknown place’

Notably, the nomination papers of both candidates, Hamza and Elahi were approved on April 2. The next day, the female MPAs of opposition and treasury benches had a scuffle inside the legislature, causing damage to the property there and forcing adjournment of the session till April 16.

The assembly’s secretary had also informed the court that the notification of the recalling session on April 6, issued by Mazari, made rounds on the social however the assembly secretariat didn’t receive any such document.

After this, the secretary informed that a no-confidence motion was moved against the deputy speaker which made him ineligible to chair the session.

In the hearing on April 8, Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar, who was representing Hamza, argued that MPAs were stopped from entering the assembly building on April 6, the day the election was originally supposed to be held.

He informed that the Punjab advocate general had also assured the Supreme Court on April 5 that the election would be held on April 6. However, it was delayed till April 16.