LAHORE: A Lahore High Court larger bench on Tuesday sought arguments on whether the opinion of the Supreme Court on the defectors’ votes could be ignored while hearing challenges against the oath of Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz.

The five-judge bench headed by Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan is seized with the appeals of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) against the decisions of two single benches regarding oath taking of CM Hamza.

Newly appointed Advocate General of Punjab (AGP) Shahzad Shaukat appeared on behalf of the government while the counsel for the PTI and the chief minister were also present.

Justice Khan observed that the matter before the bench was regarding the oath of the chief minister and asked whether the opinion rendered by the apex court on the presidential reference about the votes of the defectors had any bearing on it.

Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, another member of the bench, observed that the matter relating to the oath would become infructuous if the issue of the election stood resolved.

Hamza’s counsel argued that the opinion issued by the Supreme Court had no retrospective effect. However, the PTI’s counsel said the bench could still hear the matter of the oath.

AGP Shaukat said the defectors stood punished under the Constitution as they had been de-seated by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). He argued that the opinion given by the apex court on the votes of the defectors was a separate constitutional issue. He said the de-seated MPAs had also filed appeals before the Supreme Court against the decision of the ECP.

The bench adjourned further hearing till June 13 and asked the parties to assist on the point how the opinion of the Supreme Court could be ignored in the matter in hand.

The appeals filed by the PTI argued that the court had no jurisdiction to issue directions to the president of Pakistan and the governor. The appeals further argued that the PTI, speaker, governor and the president had not been given an opportunity of hearing by the court while issuing the impugned orders.

A single bench in its April 22 order had ruled that the governor could not refuse oath to a newly-elected chief minister of a province and expected that the president of Pakistan would nominate any person to administer oath to CM-elect Hamza without any delay.

NOTICE: Justice Shujaat Ali Khan of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued notices on a new petition filed by the MPAs of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) challenging the election of chief minister.

Petitioner’s counsel Azhar Siddique argued that the election of Hamza was not fair as the members supporting another candidate, Parvez Elahi, were not allowed to cast their vote. He said the election of the chief minister was held in the gallery of the assembly, which was not a place for the purpose. He further argued that the Supreme Court also declared that the votes cast by the defectors could not be counted. Therefore, he said, Hamza lost the majority of the house and was not eligible to hold the office.

Opposing the petition, Assistant Advocate General (AAG) Barrister Tayyab Jan said the petitioners being the members of the Punjab Assembly had an alternate remedy of filing a no-confidence motion against the chief minister.

Justice Khan admitted the petition for hearing and issued notices to the respondents. Next hearing would be held on June 20 when the judge is set to take up other similar petitions against Hamza’s election.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2022