The Lahore High Court has reserved verdict in Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz’s third plea after hearing arguments presented by the lawyers of all parties concerned, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
LHC Justice Jawad Hassan who was hearing Hamza Shehbaz’s petition regarding his delayed oath-taking on Friday asked lawyers to complete their arguments quickly so that after reserving judgement, he could write down the detailed verdict
LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti who had issued court orders twice on Hamza’s petitions directing the Punjab Governor and President to take steps to complete the oath-taking process of Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz, was not hearing the third petition filed again by CM-elect Hamza on Friday. This time round, Justice Jawad heard the petition.
After Juma prayers break, Justice Jawad resumed the hearing of the case.
The federal and Punjab governments were made respondents in his petition. Hamza pleaded that despite the fact that the LHC had ordered the Punjab governor to take oath from him or appoint somebody else for the purpose, the latter was still to comply with its order. He prayed to the court to not only appoint a person for taking oath from him but also fix time and place for the oath-taking ceremony.
During hearing, Justice Jawad rued that two earlier court orders were not complied with which put in question the dignity of judiciary and Pakistan.
He wondered why the Punjab government did not file intra-court appeal when two court orders were not implemented.
Azhar Siddique advocate said that they tried to file the appeal but the LHC office returned them after raising objections.
Azhar Siddique further said that the Punjab government was running by different political parties. He said the Federal government had a different point of view while the Punjab government held a different view.
The advocate said that the Punjab government had yet to give approval for the intra-court appeal.
Earlier, while addressing Hamza’s lawyer Ashtar Ausaf advocate, Justice Jawad who started hearing the case in the morning said that the court’s time was up now, how could he continue hearing the case. On this, the advocate requested the judge to extend the court timing under the high court rules.
Justice Jawad remarked since the Lahore High Court had already passed its order, the petitioner should have filed a contempt case. After this, the justice adjourned the hearing for Juma prayers till 2pm.
In a light vein, the judge said he was going to say Juma prayers and he would pray to Allah to guide him what he should do?
During his arguments, Ashtar Ausaf said that the LHC had issued clear orders regarding oath-taking of Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz. But Governor Omer Sarfraz Cheema is once again refusing to accept the court order, the lawyer said adding that both the President and Governor’s demeanor was treacherous and libelous.
On this, Justice Jawad remarked when the court ordered for the swearing-in of CM-elect Hamza on April 28, then why the petitioner did not file the contempt plea.
The advocate said that his client was of the view that the process of contempt plea could become lengthy and it could be filed later.
Justice Jawad inquired of Additional Attorney General Nasr Ahmad whether the court could order for administering the oath under Article 255. The judge remarked that nobody was allowed to condone the court order.
The additional AG said that he could not say who could be nominated for administrating the oath but could only say that as per the constitution, Senate Chairman could be nominated after the President.
After that the judge announced Juma prayers break while saying that he would try to find some constitutional solution to the problem.
Reporter Malik Ashraf