LAHORE: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has admitted a plea filed by PTI candidate for CM Punjab Parvez Elahi on Saturday night against Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari’s ruling to reject 10 PML-Q votes, ARY NEWS reported.
The counsel representing Parvez Elahi submitted the plea to deputy registrar of the Supreme Court at the Lahore Registry.
It stated that the election for CM Punjab was held today where Parvez Elahi secured 186 votes, however, the deputy speaker in an unconstitutional and illegal manner gave a ruling to reject the 10 votes.
The petition stated that the ruling violated the apex court’s decision with regard to the interpretation of Article 63 A of the Constitution and asked the court to annul the ruling.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shehbaz was re-elected as the chief minister (CM) of Punjab after votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were rejected by the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker.
According to details, Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari – who chaired the session – ruled that the votes of PML-Q lawmakers will not be counted in the election of Punjab chief minister in the light of party head Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s letter.
Pervaiz Elahi – joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q – received 186 votes, while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes. However. 10 votes of PML-Q were cancelled by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, hence taking the figure to 176.
Raza Basharat counters Deputy Speaker’s ruling
Meanwhile, PTI Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Raja Basharat has countered the ruling of PA Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari, saying that the law states that the parliamentary party could issue instructions to party members.
He pointed out that the party chief was not authorized to give such instructions if the parliamentary party had decided to vote a certain candidate. He also read the order of the Supreme Court. “The head of the parliamentary party is Parvez Elahi,” he contended.
However, Mazari said that the matter had been clarified by the Supreme Court, subsequently proroguing the session.
