The Supreme Court will soon continue hearing petitions pertaining to the recently hosted Punjab chief minister’s reelection upon rejecting the government’s request for a full court bench yesterday.
At 11:30am, the proceedings will start, which the coalition has declared it will boycott in retaliation.
Arguments about the decision of Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari, which was crucial to Hamza Shehbaz’s victory, will be heard by a three-member bench consisting of Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Munib Akhtar are the Chief Justices of Pakistan.
Mazari made the decision not to count the ballots of 10 PML-Q MPs who had voted for Elahi during the re-election, citing a letter from PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain telling them to support Hamza instead.
The court had granted Hamza, who had been re-elected on July 22, the right to continue serving as chief minister “in trust” until July 25 during the hearing on Saturday.
Yesterday, as the PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s petition to challenge the CM election was being heard, the government asked for the formation of a full bench.T
he CJP, however, rejected the request since a full court would mean that the case hearing would not resume until September due to the judges’ present absences.
Justice Bandial had previously stated, “But we can’t allow such a condition of affairs to stretch out and continue.”
The ruling alliance thereafter said that it will boycott the court proceedings in a late-night conference to express its opposition to the SC’s order.
