Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti will take up the petition of chief minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz for his oath-taking today (Thursday) after the petitioner removed the objection raised by the court registrar, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The LHC registrar office Wednesday objected again to the petition of Hamza Shehbaz for his oath-taking, this time for making Punjab governor a respondent and not pinning a copy of former chief minister Usman Buzdar’s resignation to the petition.

The 24NewsHD reported quoting the court sources that the lawyers for Hamza Shehbaz had accelerated efforts for getting all objections removed and having the petition fixed for hearing. They succeeded in their efforts as they made secretary to governor as respondent instead of the governor.

It is to be noted here that Punjab governor and chief secretary had been made respondents in the petition filed in the LHC by CM-elect Hamza Shehbaz.

It was stated in the petition that the resignation of former chief minister Usman Buzdar had been accepted on April 1, and since then, the Chief Minister’s office has been lying vacant.

The petition also stated that it was a constitutional convention for the governor to call the elected chief minister and administer oath to him, adding violation of constitutional conventions was in fact a deviation from the Constitution itself.

It also alleged that a constitutional crisis was being created in Punjab which was against the parliamentary democracy and the spirit of the Constitution, adding the governor’s office was a symbol of federation and unity and governor’s job was to protect the Constitution.

“In the written Constitution, the governor does not have the powers of a king. The governor’s refusal to take oath from the petitioner is a political ploy and bad intention. The offices of the president, assembly speaker and governor are bound to avoid adopting party policies,” it stated.

“As the oath is not being administered, the petitioner has got no choice but to file a constitutional petition. The Punjab governor should be ordered to administer oath to the newly-elected Chief Minister of Punjab without any delay,” the court urged.

Reporter: Malik Ashraf