LHC to hear PTI’s appeal against CM’s oath-taking on 28th

LAHORE – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday admitted for hearing an intra-court appeal filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf members of the Punjab Assembly as well as assembly Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi against the court’s decision on the oath-taking of Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz.

According to the regular cause list issued by the registrar, a five-member larger bench of the court, headed by Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan, will start hearing of the case on June 28. Other judges on the bench are Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, Justice Shahram Sarwar Chaudhry, Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh. The court also directed the CM’s counsel to satisfy whether the court could ask any person, other than the provincial governor, to take oath from the newly-elected chief minister. Advocate General Shahzad Shaukat will represent the Punjab government in the case while Barrister Ali Zafar and Imtiaz Siddiqui will appear on behalf of the assembly speaker. Similarly, Ahmad Awais Advocate and Mansoor Awan Advocate will represent President Arif Alvi and Chief Minister Hamza respectively. Earlier, Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz said that the constitutional crisis that was created in the province was unprecedented. Speaking at Aiwan-e-Iqbal, he accused Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf of trampling upon the constitution. “The speaker kept convening and kept adjourning the assembly sessions; thus wasting public money,” he added. Hamza said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had come to power to serve masses. He claimed that the PTI government had even snatched provision of free medicines from the people. “But now people of the province will be able to purchase medicines at all Punjab hospitals free of cost from July 1, 2022,” he announced.

The chief minister also said that more facilities would be offered to the people under the health card. He was of the view that PTI leaders had talked of ‘bloody march’ only to save their political image. “Despite the Supreme Court orders, PTI workers damaged public properties inside the Red Zone,” he said.