LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday referred a petition on likely dissolution of the Punjab Assembly to a full bench already hearing a similar matter.

Justice Shahid Karim observed that a full bench had already taken cognizance of the issue related to dissolution of the provincial assembly on a petition of Chief Minister Parvez Elahi.

The judge forwarded the petition to the chief justice with a request to place it before the full bench. The full bench is set to resume its hearing on Jan 11.

Salman Khalid Cheema, a lawyer, had filed the petition, saying PTI Chairman Imran Khan had announced the dissolution of the provincial assembly. The counsel for the petitioner is Advocate Aaminah Qadir. Cheema argued that a chief minister could not dissolve an assembly when the majority of its members were against the dissolution. He claimed that the majority of the MPAs in Punjab were not in favour of the dissolution of the assembly. He argued that the dissolution of the assembly on the desire of the former PM would be against the mandate of the Constitution and autonomy of the province.

The petitioner alleged that the PTI chief wanted to dissolve the assembly for his personal gains but it would be detrimental to the stability in the country. He asked the court to restrain the Punjab chief minister from dissolution of the Punjab assembly in the larger public interest.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2023