LAHORE: The Lahore High Court registrar office on Tuesday returned a petition of Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz against the governor for delaying his oath taking ceremony.

The office found some necessary documents missing with the petition and returned the same.

The legal team of Hamza will file the petition again on Wednesday (today) with necessary documents.

The petition said Hamza has been elected as chief minister in a session held on the directions of the LHC. It said Governor Umar Sarfraz Cheema has been refusing to adhere to the constitutional command and delaying the oath taking ceremony of the petitioner.

It said the impugned inaction of the governor was based on extraneous and irrelevant factors.

It argued that the entire edifice of the reasoning by the governor, as reported in the media, was unconstitutional, irrelevant and based upon a misconceived and erroneous understanding that the governor had any authority or discretion at his disposal.

It said the illegal and unconstitutional inaction to call upon the chief minister-elect and refusal to administer oath on the basis of some misconceived and unconstitutional figment of imagination was clearly politically motivated and had no nexus with the constitutional role of the governor.

The petition asked the court to order the governor to administer the oath of petitioner as per the prevalent constitutional dispensation without any delay. It also asked the court to appoint any other person to administer the oath of the chief minister to the petitioner.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2022