LAHORE: A larger bench of the Lahore High Court adjourned to June 15 the proceedings in appeals of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) as the counsel for Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz continued his arguments on Monday.

Earlier, the counsel of Hamza Shahbaz argued that the then governor failed to fulfill his constitutional obligation by refusing to administer oath to the newly-elected chief minister. He said the governor had no power to examine any controversy regarding the election of chief minister.

On a court query about the fate of chief minister if votes of the defectors were not counted as per the Supreme Court’s opinion, the counsel said the opinion rendered by the apex court could not be enforced retrospectively. He further said that the detailed decision of the apex court was yet to be issued. The PTI in its appeal argued that the court had no jurisdiction to issue directions to the president of Pakistan and the governor.

A single bench on April 22 last had ruled that the governor could not refuse oath to a newly-elected chief minister of a province and expected that the president of Pakistan would nominate any person to administer oath to CM-elect Hamza Shahbaz.

The same bench on April 27 on another petition of Hamza Shahbaz had advised the Punjab governor to ensure completion of the process of administration of oath to the CM-elect, either himself or through his nominee within a day.

The third order was passed by another single bench on a third petition of Hamza Shahbaz wherein the speaker of National Assembly was asked to administer oath to Hamza Shahbaz as Chief Minister Punjab.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022