Irfan Qadir, the lawyer for Dost Mohammad Mazari, the deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly, notified the Supreme Court on Tuesday that his customer had instructed him not to take part in the case proceedings any further and that he would instead submit a petition for review of the court’s choice not to appoint a full bench.
Farooq H. Naek, a PPP attorney, also opted out of the court proceedings.
This development comes as the Supreme Court resumes hearing PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s suit contesting the deputy speaker’s decision in the just-concluded Punjab chief minister re-election, which resulted in Hamza Shehbaz’s victory.
Soon after 11:30am, the hearings got started. The governing party had previously said that it would skip the hearings in retaliation. Both sides’ attorneys had already arrived in court.
The case contesting Mazari’s decision, which was crucial to Hamza Shehbaz’s victory, is being heard by a three-member bench consisting of Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar.
Mazari made the decision not to consider the ballots of 10 PML-Q lawmakers who had voted for Elahi during the election, citing a letter from Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the party’s president, instructing them to support Hamza instead.
