Hamza Shahbaz
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday resumed the trial against Hamza Shahbaz’s appointment as Punjab Chief Minister.
Polling for the post of Punjab Chief Minister was recently held in the Legislative Assembly. Hamza Shahbaz, son of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, contested on behalf of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party and Chaudhary Bawez Elahi on behalf of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) party, which is part of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party alliance led by Imran Khan.
Bawez Elahi got 186 votes and Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes. But the PML-Q party leader said that he had written to him asking his party’s councilors to vote for Hamza and the votes of 10 people who voted for Elahi in violation of that order would be declared invalid.
Thus, Hamza was declared the winner and he took charge as the Chief Minister again.
Elahi filed a case in the Supreme Court against this order of the Deputy Chairman of the Assembly. When the case came up for hearing last Saturday, the Supreme Court said that Hamza Shahbaz could continue as the ‘responsible’ chief minister and the case would be taken up again on Monday. Due to this order of the Supreme Court, Hamza Shahbaz cannot take any important decisions.
In this case, the case came up for hearing on Monday before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court. However, the ruling coalition has insisted that the case should be heard by a full bench of five judges.