CM Punjab election challenged in Supreme Court
Pakistan
The petition against Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly ruling was filed on behalf of Pervaiz Elahi.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has filed a petition against the Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly ruling in Chief Minister Punjab election in the Supreme Court’s (SC) Lahore Registry in the wee hours of Saturday, Dunya News reported.
The Supreme Court’s (SC) Lahore Registry was opened at midnight after the election of the Punjab Chief Minister.
Pervaiz Elahi, who was the joint candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and PML-Q for the post of Punjab Chief Minister, reached the Supreme Court’s Lahore Registry along with lawmakers of both the parties to file the petition.
The petition against the Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly ruling was filed on behalf of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi which was received by the deputy registrar Supreme Court’s (SC) Lahore Registry Ijaz Goraya.
According to the Deputy Registrar, the hearing on the petition cannot take place at this time of night. He said that the Registrar s Office will decide the hearing on the petition.
Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Hamza Shahbaz was elected as the Chief Minister of the Punjab province by securing majority of votes in the runoff election.
Hamza Shahbaz secured 179 votes whereas Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi – the Joint Candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) – bagged 176 votes.
Although 186 votes were cast in favor of Parvez Elahi. However, the Deputy Speaker refused to count the 10 votes cast by the Muslim League (Q) MPAs citing Article 63 (1) (A) of the Constitution of Pakistan. Therefore, the parliamentary strength of the opposition alliance was reduced to 176.
Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari read out a letter written by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain requesting the members of his party to vote for Hamza Shahbaz. Therefore, the Deputy Speaker said the lawmakers violated the order of Chaudhry Shujaat and rejected all the votes cast by the members of the Muslim League (Q).
At the beginning of the session, Raja Sagheer who was elected from PP-7 Rawalpindi’s constituency took oath in the house, after that PML-N leader Khalil Tahir Sindhu objected to the presence of PTI candidates Zain Qureshi and Shabbir Gujjar in the assembly and said that since Zain had not resigned from the membership of the National Assembly, he was not eligible to vote in the provincial assembly.
Meanwhile, the party added that since there was a case pending against Gujjar with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), he cannot cast his vote either.
However, PTI leader Raja Basharat, in Gujjar’s defence, said that the ECP had sent a notification in this regard and according to that, Gujjar is eligible to cast his vote.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker also rejected all objections and allowed both provincial assembly members to vote in the election.
