The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday received an application to expedite the hearing of a petition seeking the prime minister's election to be declared unconstitutional on the basis that at least 69 members of the National Assembly abstained from voting and failed to participate in the formation of the federal government.

The petition was accepted by the LHC on September 4, after the petitioner, Sheikh Zahid Mahmood, filed it through senior lawyer A.K. Dogar, pleading that it was mandatory under Article 91(4) of the Constitution that every member of the National Assembly must cast his/her vote to person(s) nominated for the election of prime minister.

The petitioner had stated that 69 members of the PPP and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) were present in the assembly but abstained from voting, and that by doing so they had failed to perform their duty of participating in the establishment of the federal government.

In the petition, he had explained that the chosen representatives of the people could not abstain from casting their votes, and urged the court to declare that Imran Khan had been elected as prime minister unconstitutionally.

The PPP and JI have been made a party in the petition in addition to the federal law ministry and PM Imran Khan.

After accepting the petition, the court had set November 1 as the date of the first hearing of the case.