PA deputy speaker fled the country, claims Fawad

LAHORE: Dost Muhammad Mazari, deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly, has flown out of the country, Fawad Chaudhry, senior vice president of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) claimed Monday, days after the former was summoned by the Supreme Court to explain the contentious ruling he gave to sideline the votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) party.

Mazari sparked a "constitutional crisis" by his decision to sideline the party of former prime minister Imran Khan in the election for the office of Punjab chief minister held late on Friday, despite sweeping the make-or-break by-election on July 17.

The vote was held to determine whether the sitting chief executive, Hamza Shehbaz, enjoyed the backing of the majority of lawmakers in the assembly.

In the vote, Khan’s candidate for chief minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who was fielded by his PML-Q as well, 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 PML-Q, headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, had violated regulations by voting contrary to demands from their leader, Hussain, who had allegedly asked they abstain from voting.

Under the Constitution, 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”.

Commenting on Mazari’s judgement, legal eagles were unanimous in their view that under Article 63-A of the Constitution, the law on floor-crossing, the parliamentary party, and not the party head, reserved the right to support any candidate for the election of Leader of the House.

The court summoned Mazari, asking him to specify the paragraph in its opinion on Article 63-A on which he had based his ruling. He, however, did not appear and his counsel, Irfan Qadir, said he was unavailable.