A three-member apex court bench comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhter was hearing the main petition filed by Chaudhry Pevaiz Elahi, who was the candidate for the chief minister’s slot.
A three-member apex court bench comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhter was hearing the main petition filed by Chaudhry Pevaiz Elahi, who was the candidate for the chief minister’s slot.
Elahi secured 186 votes against 179 votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Hamza Shehbaz but lost after Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari rejected 10 votes of his Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) lawmakers.
Mazari refused to count the vote after party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain through a letter directed his party lawmakers to vote for Hamza, son of Prime Minister Sharif and PML-N president. The Punjab province has been in turmoil since April which took a new turn on Friday when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supported candidate, Elahi, was not declared a winner.
Mazari in his ruling said that PML-Q chief, Chaudhry Hussain, through a letter directed his party’s 10 members including Elahi to vote for Hamza but they violated the direction and their votes could not be counted under Article 63-A as interpreted by the Supreme Court. The ruling was challenged by Elahi and the court in its short order on Saturday asked Hamza to continue as “trustee” chief minister and announced to take up the hearing on Monday.
The apex court order irked the coalition government led by which after criticising it demanded the constitution of a full bench, and reiterated it on Monday as the court grappled with the issue. After hearing the arguments and much deliberations, Chief Justice Bandial announced that the court “needs more legal clarification” regarding the formation of a full bench to issue a verdict on the case.
He also said that he was unsure whether the decision on the ruling of Mazari would be made on Monday. Earlier, PML-N leader and the party vice president Maryam Nawaz alleged that the petitions being filed in the court were facing delays and claimed that her party was being discriminated against by the court.
“She as ever, has the courage to criticize the judges once and again. One or two judges, who have always been anti-PML-N and anti-government are repeatedly included in the bench,” she said, adding that “bench-fixing is a crime just like match-fixing”.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari asserted that the country’s democratic parties had only one demand: the formation of a full bench.
