In its remarks, which must have come as a pleasant surprise for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday said it was now mulling ordering reelection for the seat of Punjab chief minister, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.  

During the hearing of intra-court appeals filed against the decision on oath-taking by Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, PTI’s counsel Barrister Ali Zafar prayed to the court to order reelection in the light of Supreme Court (SC) verdict. “We have no objection to the reelection either,” the advocate general of Punjab replied.   

PTI’s counsel requested the court to first order the removal of Hamza as Punjab CM before ordering reelection for the seat. 

He also prayed to the court to give the time period of at least 10 days for the voting. 

Barrister Zafar was of the view that votes of five PTI MPAs on reserved seats should also be counted if the election was held again since the LHC had already given a ruling concerning them. 

Justice Shahid Jameel Khan remarked that in the event of re-polling, PTI’s 25 ‘defecting’ MPAs will not be allowed to vote.  

Justice Sadaaqat Ali Khan reminded that the SC, in its ruling, had ordered not counting the votes of party’s ‘turncoats’. “It did not say that they should be de-notified,” he added. 

Amir Saeed Raan, another counsel for the PTI, told the court that the Punjab Assembly (PA) deputy speaker had allowed the police to enter the House on the day of election for the seat of chief minister. “Therefore, he went against the LHC’s order of holding election,” he argued.  

When the court asked him whether he had filed contempt of court petition against the deputy speaker, he replied in negative, and said that now even the time had passed. 

Justice Shahid said that it was for the Law Division to decide whether the notification for the election of Hamza as Punjab chief minister was legal.  

Barrister Zafar said it was his view that the court should not do anything in haste.  

He went on to add that going back to April 16, 2022, the voting day, was not possible now since 25 PTI ‘turncoats’ now stood de-seated. “The candidates will be the same while the constituents will be different,” he added.

Later the court, accepting the AGP’s request, adjourned hearing of the case until 10:00 AM tomorrow (June 29, 2022).  

Three days ago, on Saturday (June 25, 2022), the Lahore High Court (LHC) had admitted for hearing an intra-court appeal filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf members of the Punjab Assembly (MPAs) as well as assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi against the court’s decision on the oath-taking of Chief Minister (CM) Hamza Shehbaz.

According to the regular cause list issued by the registrar, a five-member larger bench of the court, headed by Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan, will start hearing of the case on June 28.     

Other judges on the bench are: Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, Justice Shahram Sarwar Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sajid Mehmood Sethi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh.

Reporter: Malik Ashraf