ISLAMABAD: An unusual oath-taking ceremony took place at the Presidency on Wednesday when President Dr Arif Alvi administered oath to Parvez Elahi as the new chief minister of Punjab.

The ceremony was televised by the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV).

The meeting that took place at 2am on Wednesday was attended by Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, Chaudhry Hussain Elahi, Chaudhry Rasik Elahi, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Fawad Chaudhry, Pervaiz Khattak, Babar Awan, Senator Shibli Faraz, Farrukh Habib, Noorul Haq Qadri, Ali Zaidi, Senator Azam Swati, Malik Amin Aslam, Senator Faisal Javed, Shehryar Afridi, Shehbaz Gill and Amir Mehmood Kiani also witnessed the ceremony.

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday gave a ruling in favour of Parvez Elahi declaring him the new Punjab chief minister.

A source in the PTV told Dawn that only a short part of the ceremony was shown on television without any sound during a talk show.

New Punjab CM reaches Islamabad on property tycoon’s private jet to take oath

The oath-taking ceremony was attended by the senior leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and members of the civil society. Earlier, the president congratulated Mr Elahi for being selected as the Punjab chief minister.

The ceremony was held in pursuance of the Supreme Court’s direction contained in the judgement on CP No. 22 against the ruling of the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker on July 22, 2022 wherein the Punjab governor was asked to arrange and administer oath of office to the petitioner as the duly elected chief minister, Punjab in accordance with law and the Constitution.

The SC had also stated that in case the governor was unable or unwilling to administer oath, the president of Pakistan may forthwith administer oath of office to the petitioner as chief minister.

Flight to capital on private jet

Chaudhry Parvez Elahi had to rush from Lahore to the federal capital after Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman refused to carry out the job.

He travelled on a private plane owned by property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain, which departed from Lahore with 12 passengers onboard, including the designated chief minister Parvez Elahi.

Among the three crew members were Captain Adnan and Zaeem.

The chief minister was accompanied by Mr Wajahat, Mr Azhar, Mr Farooq, Hanif, Saleem, Zain, Mehmood, Murad, Rashid, Iqbal and Azeem.

As Mr Elahi’s special flight landed at the airport, he was given security cover by the Punjab police and Special Branch and special deployment of police was also carried out along the route to Aiwan-i-Sadr.

However, when contacted by Dawn PML-Q spokesman Kamil Ali Agha said he did not know whether this was true. “I cannot comment on it as it is not in my knowledge,” he said.

The Supreme Court had directed Governor Balighur Rehman to administer the oath of office to Mr Elahi in accordance with the law and Constitution not later than 11.30pm on Tuesday and in case the governor was unable or unwilling to do so, President Alvi could carry out the job.

The new chief minister later left for Lahore by road at about 4.30pm on Wednesday after spending a busy day in the federal capital territory.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2022