In a much anticipated verdict on Tuesday evening the top court turned down ruling of Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari terming it as illegal and issued directives to the provincial chief secretary to notify Pervaiz Elahi as provincial Chief Minister immediately.
The Supreme Court’s ruling came as a deadly blow to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the ruling coalition. In an 11-page short order, the court said: “We find that the understanding and implementation of the said short judgment as well as the provisions of Article 63A(1)(b) of the Constitution by the Deputy Speaker, Provincial Assembly of Punjab, Lahore (Respondent No.1) was patently incorrect and erroneous and cannot be sustained.” It added that the act also “subverted” the governance of Punjab.
“As a result, the Ruling dated 22.07.2022 issued by Respondent No.1, Deputy Speaker, Punjab Assembly is set aside and declared to be void, without lawful authority and of no legal effect,” stated in the short order. The order then declared Elahi as the duly elected chief minister as it ruled that he had obtained 186 votes compared to Hamza’s 179. It has also been declared in the order that the oath of office administered to Hamza was “without lawful authority and of no legal effect”.
“Likewise all acts, deeds and things attendant and consequent upon such oath including but not limited to the notification of Respondent No.2 (Hamza Shahbaz) and the formation and swearing in of the Cabinet on his advice is also declared to be without lawful authority and of no legal effect,” said the order.
The three-member bench – comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Muneeb Akhtar – also ordered Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman to administer the oath to Elahi at 11:30pm saying if the Governor unable to perform this oath, President Dr Arif Alvi will administer the oath. The verdict was announced after a three-hour delay, CJP Bandial had first said that the judgment would be issued at 5:45pm and later it was scheduled to be announced at 7:30pm. But the short order was pronounced at around 9pm.
The proceedings went on for three days – Friday, Monday, and Tuesday – as lawyers from all the parties argued in the matter before the bench. Elahi – who had been defeated by Hamza Shahbaz on July 22 during the Punjab CM’s election after 10 PML-Q votes were rejected by Deputy Speaker Mazari – had challenged the ruling before the Supreme Court.
After hearing arguments at length on Monday the top court turned down coalition government plea, seeking full court bench formation over determining legality of Punjab Assembly’s deputy speaker refusal of counting ten votes of Pakistan Muslim League -Q MPAs in recent re-election of provincial Chief Minister.
Shujaat Hussain is the president of Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q), whose cousin Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is one of the key allies of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and recently has contested election for the slot of chief minister Punjab. Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi secured 186 votes, but the deputy speaker refused to count the 10 votes cast by the PML-Q MPAs, citing Article 63 (1) (A) of the Constitution of Pakistan after PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat directed his party leaders to cast their votes in favour of PML-N candidate Hamza Shahbaz, son of the incumbent Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
Assailing the election results before Supreme Court on last Friday Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi urged the top court to declare the election result null and void amid pronouncing his name as winner in the election. However, the top court asked all the parties to turn up with arguments before the principal branch at Islamabad on July 25, 2022 at 1pm.
During second day of hearing of the matter on Tuesday, counsels for the respondents submitted before the bench they will not part of the proceedings due to boycott to which the CJP said he will change opinion only when concrete reasons are given to form a full court. The CJP termed full court formation in this stage was tantamount to unnecessary delay.
After inability of counsels for the respondents to commence arguments the CJP asked counsel for Elahi, Barrister Ali Zafar to assist the court in the matter saying “People sitting on my right side have unanimously decided to boycott the proceedings of the court,”. He further observed saying thankfully, they have enough grace to sit in court to hear the proceedings. Giving his arguments in the case, Zafar said that the petitions against the 21st Amendment were dismissed by a ratio of 13:4 in a full court. However, many judges gave different reasons for dismissing the petitions, he added. Later, the bench reserved verdict in the matter and pronounced the 11-page short order declaring Mazari ruling void.
