Daily Times

President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath to Chaudhary Parvez Elahi as Chief Minister Punjab in a ceremony held at Aiwan-e-Sadr, late Tuesday night after the Supreme Court announced a verdict against the ruling of Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammed Mazari.

The Punjab Governor Baligh ur Rehman was initially instructed by the three-member SC bench, to administer the oath to Elahi but he refused to comply. As a result, President Arif Alvi administered the oath.

Elahi left for Islamabad late Tuesday night to take the oath from President Alvi in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directive after Governor Punjab refused.

The ceremony was attended by the senior leadership of PML (Q) and PTI, and members of the civil society in large numbers.

Chaudhary Moonis Elahi, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, Chaudhary Hussain Elahi, Chaudhry Rasik Elahi, Sheikh Rashid, Fawad Chaudhary, Pervaiz Khatak, Babar Awan, Senator Shibli Faraz, Farrukh Habib, Noor up Haq Qadri, Ali Zaidi, Senator Azam Swati, Malik Main Aslam, Senator Faisal Javed, Sheharyar Afridi, Shehbaz Gill and Amir Mehmood Kiani also witnessed the ceremony.

Earlier, the Supreme Court, in an 11-page short order, said: “We find that the understanding and implementation of the said short judgment as well as the provisions of Article 63A(1)(b) of the Constitution by the Deputy Speaker, Provincial Assembly of Punjab, Lahore (Respondent No.1) was patently incorrect and erroneous and cannot be sustained.”

The top court also declared appointments made by Hamza Shahbaz and the oath administered to the Punjab cabinet “null and void”.

The Supreme Court proceedings were carried out for three days — Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday — as lawyers from all the parties presented their arguments.

In spite of the ruling coalition partners’ boycott of the court proceedings, the Supreme Court on Tuesday resumed hearing on Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi’s petition regarding the election of the chief minister.

The petition filed by the opposition parties challenging the decision of Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari regarding the election of the chief minister was being heard by a three-member bench presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial and made up of Justices Ejaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Muneeb Akhtar.

During the election on Friday, Mazari rejected all 10 votes cast by the PML-Q on the pretext that they had violated the orders of their party chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, citing a letter he received from the patriarch which said he was asking his party lawmakers to back Hamza.

Elahi received 186 votes, while Hamza received 179, according to the deputy speaker’s announcement following the tallying of the ballots. However, he refrained from declaring Elahi the chief minister.

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