LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Saturday allowed Hamza Shehbaz to stay “trustee” Punjab chief minister until the hearing resumes on Monday, as it adjourned proceedings in a plea filed by PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi challenging Punjab Assembly (PA) Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari’s calling the chief minister’s re-election in Hamza’s favour a day earlier.
The decision was taken as a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhter, took up the petition filed earlier in the day.
In its verbal order, the apex court said that it didn’t want a vacuum to be created in such a large province.
It also clarified that Hamza would work in accordance with the law and the Constitution until then, adding that Hamza was not allowed to use his power as chief minister in any way that would benefit him personally.
Irfan Qadir, Mazari’s lawyer, asked the court for more time and said he wanted to submit a written response. The court granted him time till Monday.
Parvez Elahi’s lawyer, Barrister Ali Zafar, requested the court to at least prevent Hamza from forming cabinet, on which the court said he could form one but it should be as small as possible.
The PML-Q lawyer requested the court to hear the matter tomorrow as well but the court said if the arguments were not completed, the matter would go to Monday anyway so the hearing will be in Islamabad on Monday.
Outside the court, PTI leader Farrukh Habib told reporters that the government’s side had no responses or credible arguments to present in the portion of the hearing he attended.
He said the case had become very “simple and clear” after today’s hearing and Elahi would be the “legal and constitutional” chief minister once the court verdict came.
Habib said Hamza was restored only as a “trustee” chief minister so the province’s governance was not impacted and his oath today was withheld. PTI workers in large numbers had gathered outside the court.
Earlier, Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari failed to appear before the Supreme Court (SC). Instead, Mazari’s lawyer Irfan Qadir attended the hearing, which is being held at the SC’s Lahore registry.
The proceedings, being held in courtroom 1, were momentarily paused due to the presence of a large number of people in the courtroom. A glass of a door was damaged as people attempted to enter the room.
Before the hearing resumed, arrangements were made in courtroom 3 for other lawyers and people to watch the proceedings on a screen to reduce the rush.
A number of PTI leaders were present at the court, including Asad Umar, Fawad Chaudhry, Sibtain Khan, Usman Buzdar and Zain Qureshi.
The court had summoned Mazari at 2:30pm after taking up the petition earlier today.
The court had also asked him to specify the paragraph in its opinion on Article 63-A on which he had based his ruling in the CM election.
The bench had also issued notices to Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf, Advocate General of Punjab Shahzad Shaukat and the Punjab chief secretary.
The bench issued the directives while hearing Elahi’s petition, which was filed late last night, after a contentious ruling by the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker led to his defeat — despite having a majority — and Hamza Shehbaz’s re-election as the province’s chief executive.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court summoned Dost Mohammad Mazari, deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly, at 2:00 pm as it took up a petition moved by Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, the speaker, to challenge a ruling his deputy gave during the re-election to the office of Punjab chief minister.
Elahi — who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and was fielded jointly by his party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for the post — was sidelined in the vote Friday night on dubious grounds.
Elahi initially won 186 votes but the deputy speaker invalidated 10 of those votes over purported violations of voting regulations.
In a statement broadcast on national television, Mazari announced that 10 lawmakers from the PML-Q had violated regulations by voting contrary to demands from their leader, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who had allegedly asked they abstain from voting.
Under the law, votes are disqualified if lawmakers vote contrary to their party’s instructions.
Angered by the ruling, the two parties appealed to the Supreme Court to interfere. Responding to the petition, the court opened its doors at midnight to accept the applications requesting it to hold the ruling as “bogus” and “false”.
On Saturday morning, a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justices Ijaz ul-Ahsan and Munib Akhtar, directed Mazari to submit the complete record of the re-election to the court.
The bench also summoned Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf and Punjab Advocate General Shahzad Shaukat.
The hearing is being conducted at the Lahore Registry of the court.
‘ILLEGAL’ RULING
Commenting on Mazari’s judgement, legal eagles were unanimous in their view that under Article 63-A of the Constitution, the parliamentary party, and not the party head, reserved the right to support any candidate for the election of Leader of the House.
Speaking on the matter, seasoned jurist Aitzaz Ahsan said that either candidate only needed to secure a simple majority in the election and hence Elahi clearly won the vote.
Hussain’s decision to prevent Q League lawmakers from voting in favour of Elahi was non-binding if they were not communicated in advance about the parliamentary party’s decision.
Ahsan said the parliamentary party has the right to decide the matter. “The party head only has the move to prosecute any lawmaker(s), if the parliamentary party’s instructions have been violated,” he added.
However, he said if the party head feels that the MP needs to be given the benefit of the doubt, he can drop his right to prosecute those who violated the parliamentary party’s directions.
Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, a leader of the PTI, also termed the ruling as “unconstitutional”, adding the apex court will “soon issue a verdict” on the matter. He said when it came to casting a vote of no-confidence, the party head had no role to play, adding the parliamentary party is the first one to decide who to vote for.
Zafar said that at the time of the no-confidence motion, PTI chair Imran Khan had written a letter to the National Assembly speaker, while notices to the defecting MPs were issued by the general secretary of the party.
