Islamabad, July 26, 2022 (Online): The Supreme Court of Pakistan null and void the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari’s ruling over rejecting PML-Q votes and announced that Pervaiz Elahi is the Punjab Chief Minister.
The verdict saw Hamza Shehbaz lose his status as the “trustee” chief minister and his rival from PML-Q, Parvez Elahi, who had PTI’s backing, will now take over the position.
The PML-Q had filed a petition on 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.
During the election, Mazari had decided against counting the votes of 10 PML-Q lawmakers, which were cast in Elahi’s favour, citing a letter written by party President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in which he had instructed them to vote for Hamza instead.
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 the proceedings went on for three days — Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday — as lawyers from all the parties presented their arguments.
The coalition government demanded for a full court bench to hear the case but the apex court hearing arguments from all sides for nearly eight hours on Monday, the SC decided not to form a full court bench, saying that the same bench would hear the case.
As the SC decided not to form a full bench, the ruling coalition and the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) decided to boycott the apex court s hearing.
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