All eyes on Supreme Court now, says Imran Khan after Punjab CM election

Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan urged his supporters and party workers to register "peaceful protests tonight" in light of the Punjab chief minister election. Khan said that all eyes are now on the Supreme Court as he expects it to play its role.

“I am in shock at what happened in the Punjab Assembly," he said, blaming ex-president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari for always “leading the funeral of democracy” in this country.

"Zardari has been ruling Sindh for 14 years, looting wealth of the nation and using it to purchase parliamentarians.

“I have always prayed that the country’s democracy comes at par with the west. The democracy has meritocracy and transparency but its foundation is based on morality,” he said, adding that democracy has no army, and it derives power from morality.

Sharing the example of the UK, the PTI chairman said that Britain’s democracy works as Boris Johnson had to resign for holding a party during the coronavirus.

His remarks come after Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly Dost Mohammad Khan Mazari rejected 10 Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) votes to retain Hamza Shehbaz Sharif as the Chief Minister of Punjab on Friday.

The deputy speaker's decision inflicted a shock defeat to PTI-backed candidate Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi who had secured 186 votes in the election for Punjab CM. His competitor, Hamza Shehbaz of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), got 179 votes.

‘Join us,’ Zardari asks PTI candidate Elahi

However, after the deputy speaker – while citing a letter by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain – rejected the votes of PML-Q, the vote-count was 179 in favour of Hamza, and 176 in favour of Pervaiz Elahi.

Mazari's ruling was countered by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Raja Basharat, who said the law states that the parliamentary party could issue instructions to party members.

“The head of the parliamentary party is Pervaiz Elahi,” he contended.

However, Mazari responded that the matter had been clarified by the Supreme Court, subsequently proroguing the session.

Reacting to the development, PTI's Hammad Azhar said the "mandate of the people was killed".

"The law was openly violated," said Azhar.

Earlier, while voting remained underway, reports suggested PML-Q Chairperson Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had written a letter distancing himself from Elahi’s candidacy. The development comes after Pakistan Peoples Party's Asif Ali Zardari met Shujaat.

However, PML-Q's Moonis Elahi soon tweeted that a joint parliamentary meeting of PML-Q and PTI had unanimously agreed upon Pervaiz as their candidate for the election.