A day after urging Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa to play his “role” in the implementation of constitutional framework in Punjab, Governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema Thursday said he will arrest a ‘fake chief minister’, Hamza Shehbaz, if provided “a subedar and four soldiers”.
In a statement on Twitter, Cheema said the crisis-hit province had been taken hostage by force. He said the silence of mainstream political parties on the constitutional crisis in Punjab is “extremely worrying” and added that Awab Alvi, President Arif Alvi’s son, will be the next chief minister of Sindh if such practices become the culture of our politics.
“I always called for a neutral umpire during my political struggle,” he said, adding that the neutral umpire, in fact, has the same rules for both teams. Cheema has been at the centre of controversy in the country’s biggest province since PTI appointed him as governor replacing Mohammad Sarwar at the peak of the crisis last month.
Refusing to administer the oath to Hamza Shehbaz, he also earned the ire of the Lahore High Court which later ordered National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to do the job.
Cheema said he had decided to send a reference against Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Justice Jawad Hassan to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for what he called an “illegal decision” of directing the National Assembly speaker to administer oath to Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz, says a news report.
The SJC is a specialized forum created under Article 209 of the Constitution specifically for determining complaints of misconduct received against judges.
Cheema said he had decided to take legal action against the judge after consultations with professionals over the last two days.
Last month, Justice Hassan had issued a nine-page verdict after Hamza approached the high court for the third time, ending a days-long deadlock over the chief minister’s office in Punjab. Subsequently, Hamza, who was elected as Punjab chief minister on April 16, was administered the oath by NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on April 30. Cheema termed the LHC judge’s verdict “illegal”, saying that according to the honeycomb principle, no institution could “interfere” in the working of another institution.
There was no provision in the Constitution that stated that anyone besides the president or the governor could issue a notification regarding the new chief minister, he added.
The governor also shared that he had requested meetings with the president and the army chief to discuss the situation in the province.
He also advised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to make his son, Hamza, aware of how to contest the election for the chief minister in a constitutional way, stressing that he would administer the oath himself if Hamza did that.
Cheema said he had always demanded a “neutral umpire” in his 26-year-long political career. He elaborated that a “neutral umpire” maintained the same rules for both sides, otherwise, he could not be called “neutral” and the game would not be fair.
“I have clarified in my statement what kind of intervention I expect and what is needed. I would have appealed to the public if I wasn’t the governor.
“Political parties have always demanded the [army’s] 111 Brigade in the past. I have asked to at least provide me with four jawans and one subedar,” he tweeted.
The crisis in Punjab had begun when Governor Cheema on April 17, a day after the election of the chief minister in a stormy session of the Punjab Assembly that descended into downright violence, refused to administer oath to Chief Minister-elect Hamza, stating the assembly secretary’s report, LHC’s instructions and facts presented to him raised objections on the validity of the election.
In the election, scores of PTI MPAs were injured, as well as assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi – one of the two candidates for the chief ministership.
Hamza had bagged 197 votes, including 26 from PTI dissidents, while Elahi did not get any as the PTI and PML-Q lawmakers felt they were not allowed to vote.