LAHORE: A day after Lahore High Court (LHC) directed Punjab Governor Omer Sarfraz Cheema to either administer the oath of office to chief minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz or appoint a representative to complete the process by Thursday (today), 17 Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers filed an intra-court appeal against the decision.
Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti announced the verdict, a short order, on a petition moved by Shehbaz requesting the high court to direct the Senate chairman or another suitable official to administer the oath instead of Governor Cheema.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president was elected as Punjab’s new chief minister on April 16, after a chaotic session of the Punjab Assembly where legislators of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) scuffled with one another.
Shehbaz polled 197 votes — including from 24 PTI dissidents, two independents and the lone Rah-i-Haq Party lawmaker — while his opponent, Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, failed to secure a single vote from the assembly.
PTI and PML-Q lawmakers had boycotted the voting process after the ruckus.
Now, despite the passage of almost two weeks, Shehbaz has yet to be sworn into office because the governor and President Arif Alvi have delayed the proceedings, observing the election was in contrast with “all democratic norms and constitutional provisions.”
The governor has sought to claim the election was “unconstitutional,” while the president has thus far resisted calls to nominate the Senate chairman to administer the oath.
The court order read: “It is, therefore, concluded that all the enabling provisions/Articles of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, suggest the prompt formation of Governments, i.e. Provincial and Federal.
“For that matter, expeditious administration of oath either by President or by Governor or their nominee, as the case may be, is mandatory; as all expected reasons/options causing delay are excluded/procured by suggesting/providing an alternate mechanism and I do not find any vacuum or space in the Constitution for causing any delay in the administration of oath required under Constitution.”
The judge added that the province is being operated without a regular government for the last 25 days, since the acceptance of the resignation of the then-chief minister Usman Buzdar.
In the appeal moved Thursday, the lawmakers nominated Shehbaz, his father and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif through his principal secretary, Secretary to President Alvi, and Senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani as respondents.
The petition contended that the high court ignored the chaos that occurred in the assembly on election day and proceeded to conduct judicial proceedings “with utterance comprising rude remarks against the constitutional officers such as the Governor of Punjab and the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan”.
“The haste and the procedure manifest an absence of justice, particularly, in a matter which must be heard by a larger bench comprising not less than 7 judges of this honourable court, hence, this instant appeal,” the appeal read.
The petition argued that the president could act at his discretion with respect to any matter that has been empowered to him by the Constitution.
The MPAs contended that Article 133 of the Constitution also said that “the Governor may ask the Chief Minister to continue to hold office until his successor enters upon the office of the Chief Minister”.
“Article 248 of the Constitution provides protection to the President, Governor, the Prime Minister, a Federal Minister, a Minister of State, the Chief Minister and a Provincial Minister shall not be answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of those functions.”
Subsequently, the lawmakers demanded that the order passed by hgh court be “set aside being illegal, unlawful, whimsical as well as beyond the facts of the case and a clear violation of Articles 48, 133, 248 and 255 of the Constitution in the interest of justice, equity and fairplay”.
DELAYED PROCESS
Hours before the petition was moved, it emerged that Governor Cheema had decided against administering the oath of office to Shehbaz.
According to reports citing sources privy to the matter, the governor was briefed by legal experts on options available to him against the court’s decision.
During the meeting, it was decided that all options would be utilised to keep Shehbaz from assuming office.
“If needed, the high court’s decision will also be challenged before the Supreme Court,” the participants decided after legal experts briefed that the court could not exceed its constitutional limits and issue directives to the president and governor.
The sources further shared that the matter would also be conveyed to the president.
