Supreme Court rejects deputy speaker’s ruling

Terming deputy speaker’s ruling “illegal”, Supreme Court announces Pervez Elahi as new chief minister of Punjab

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan rejected Deputy Speaker’s ruling in chief minister Punjab’s election, announcing PML-Q leader Pervez Elahi as the new Chief Minister of the province.

The three-member bench, which announced the verdict after a delay of three hours, directed governor Punjab to administer oath from Elahi tonight at 11:30pm. The court also directed the Governor Punjab to take oath of Pervez Elahi as new Chief Minister. If he do not want to take oath, the court said that President Arif Alvi should administer Pervez Elahi’ oath at 11:30 pm.

The PML-Q had filed a petition on last Saturday against the ruling of the Punjab Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari that paved the way for Hamza Shahbaz to retain his post of the chief minister of the province.

The apex court’s three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar — heard the case.

While reading the brief verdict, Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial said that the copy of the judgement should be sent immediately to the governor Punjab, deputy speaker and chief secretary.

The apex court, according to the 11-page verdict, declared all appointments made by the PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz as null and void.

At the outset of today, hearing, CJP Bandial said that the constitution’s Article 63 (A) clearly states that the parliamentary party gives directions to the lawmakers — and the formation of a full court was nothing more than “delaying the case”.

“The formation of a full court and then hearing of the case could have been delayed till September as judges are on leaves.”

During the course of the proceedings, Deputy Speaker Mazari’s counsel, Irfan Qadir, told the bench that his client has directed him to not be a part of the proceedings.

Qadir told the SC that he would challenge the apex court’s decision on the formation of the full court to hear the PML-Q petition.

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