Lahore High Court Friday ordered Speaker National Assembly to take the oath of Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz tomorrow (Saturday), reported 24News HD TV channel.

The court has ordered National Assembly’s speaker Raja Parvez Ashraf to take the oath of Hamza on Saturday at 11:30 am.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled on the third petition filed for the oath of the new Punjab Chief Minister.

Justice Jawad Hassan delivered a reserved verdict on the petition of Hamza Shehbaz and appointed National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf as the representative for the swearing-in of the new Chief Minister of Punjab.

 The LHC judge Justice Jawad Hassan issued a detailed decision of 9 pages on Hamza Shehbaz's third petition for his oath.

The oath-taking ceremony will be held at Punjab Governor's House in which around 700 guests will be invited.

Earlier today, the Court reserved verdict in Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz’s third plea after hearing arguments presented by the lawyers of all parties concerned. 

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 the time and place for the oath-taking ceremony.

During the hearing, Justice Jawad rued that two earlier court orders were not complied with which put in question the dignity of the judiciary and Pakistan. 

He wondered why the Punjab government did not file an 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. 

In a light vein, the judge said he was going to offer 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