Supreme Court once again made Hamza Shahbaz 'trustee CM' till Monday in Ch Pervaiz Elahi's petition

The three member bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial heard the plea of Ch Pervaiz Elahi in Lahore registry

 

Hamza Shahbaz gets two more days as CM Punjab after the Supreme Court allowed him to stay as a “trustee” Punjab chief minister until the next hearing on Monday.  It is the second time that SC has curtailed his powers as CM Punjab.  The SC issued this order in the plea filed by PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi against the ruling of Punjab Assembly (PA) Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari in which he rejected 10 votes of PML-Q and declared Hamza Shahbaz as winner of CM Punjab’s election.

The decision was taken as a three-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhter, took up the petition filed by PML-Q leader Ch Pervaiz Elahi at the SC’s Lahore registry.

In its order after the day-long hearing, the Apex Court said: “Hamza will continue to work as a trustee chief minister till Monday.” It ruled that Hamza should work as per the Constitution and law during the time period. “As the chief minister, Hamza Shehbaz will not use his powers for political gains,” it stressed.

The court adjourned the hearing on the request of Dost Mazari’s lawyer Irfan Qadir, who appeared before the court after the deputy speaker failed to show up, asked for more time and said he wanted to submit a written response. The court granted him time till the next hearing on Monday.

Meanwhile, Ch Pervaiz Elahi’s lawyer, Barrister Ali Zafar, requested the court to at least prevent Hamza from forming a cabinet, on which the court said he could form one but it should be as small as possible.

The PML-Q lawyer requested the court to hear the matter tomorrow as well but the court said if the arguments were not completed, the matter would go to Monday anyway so the hearing will be in Islamabad on Monday.

Following an unexpected move by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, PTI and PML-Q filed a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) Lahore Registry against Dost Mazari’s ruling which cited the Supreme Court's opinion on Article 63(A) for rejecting 10 votes polled in favour of Pervez Elahi "against the party line."

Earlier, after a crucial session of the Punjab assembly, PML-N's candidate Hamza Shahbaz retained the post of the Punjab CM against Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi through a three-vote victory.

Following the counting of votes, the deputy speaker, citing Article 63A of the Constitution, rejected 10 votes cast by the PML-Q members. As a result, Hamza received 179 votes, while Elahi managed to bag 176 votes.

Pervez Elahi’s counsel Aamir Saeed Rawn filed the petition in the SC in which Hamza Shahbaz, Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari and the chief secretary were made parties.

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