Advocate General to challenge judgment
Amraiz Khan Lahore
On the request of new Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday ordered President of Pakistan to appoint a representative to administer oath from newly elected Chief Minister after governor Punjab Omar Sarfaraz Cheema refused to administer same oath.
It is worth mentioning here that Governor Punjab had expressed his inability to take oath from Hamaza Shahbaz. Chief Justice Lahore High Court Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, while writing a brief judgment, said that the governor could not refuse to take oath.
A copy of the decision should be sent to the President. The Lahore High Court has disposed of Hamza Shahbaz Sharif’s application for swearing in.
LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti announced the verdict on the petition of CM-elect Hamza Shehbaz. Earlier, the Lahore High Court has once again deferred the hearing of Hamza Shehbaz’s oath-taking petition till 2pm warning the Punjab advocate general that if no letter was issued by that time, the court would pronounce its judgement on Friday. Earlier, the court deferred the hearing till 11am on Friday but has delayed it further till 2pm.
LHC Chief justice Ameer Bhatti is currently hearing the case. In his yesterday’s ruling, the chief justice directed the Punjab AG to seek Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema’s response regarding his reluctance to administer oath to the chief minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz.
The advocate general told the court that the governor was sending his reason to President Arif Alvi. On this, Chief Justice Bhatti inquired by what time the governor would be able to finally dispatch his reason to the president. The government law official replied that the governor was not bound to give his reply to any court.
The CJ said that for the last 21 days, the province was running sans any government and the governor was delaying submitting his response to the court for the last 5 or 6 days.
On this, the advocate general said the governor had already told the court whatever he wanted to tell it regarding his refusal to administer the oath. He said it was a matter of dishonouring the entire nation.
|Earlier, while deferring the hearing of Hamza Shehbaz’s oath-taking petition till 11am, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has sought the reason from Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema for not administering oath to the chief minister-elect.
The advocate general of Punjab, who appeared before the court for assistance in the case, was asked by LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti to tell the court at 11am the reason behind the Punjab governor’s reluctance to administer oath to CM-elect Hamza Shehbaz.
“The Punjab governor believes that the election of the Chief Minister of Punjab was not held according to the Constitution,” said the advocate general of Punjab.
“What will happen if Punjab governor does not want to administer the oath?” questioned the LHC chief justice. “The governor will have to tell reason if he does not want to administer oath,” stated he.
It is to be noted here that Hamza Shehbaz has obtained the services of Ashtar Ausaf Advocate for pursuing his case.
Advocate General Punjab on Friday announced to challenge Lahore High Court’s decision regarding Hamza Shahbaz’s oath as Chief Minister and direction of the court to President of Pakistan.
According to the report, Advocate General Punjab is of the view that the Governor of Punjab was not given notice and was not heard by the court.
On the other hand, the President of Pakistan was not a party in the case to whom instructions cannot be issued I this case.
It may be recalled that the Chief Justice Lahore High Court directed the President to appoint another person to administer oath to the newly elected Chief Minister of Punjab Hamza Shahbaz.
Chief Justice Lahore High Court Ameer Bhatti, while writing a brief judgment, said that the governor could not refuse to take oath. A copy of the decision should be sent to the President. With this order, the Lahore High Court disposed of Hamza Shahbaz Sharif’s application for swearing in.
