No one should have guts to challenge HC’s decisions: Justice Hassan
After much delay, the Lahore High Court Friday directed National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to administer the oath to Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shahbaz.
The order comes after the CM-elect had sought the high court’s intervention in his oath-taking ceremony for the third time as the government had delayed his oath-taking ceremony on several grounds despite Hamza being elected with a clear majority of 197 votes from the Punjab Assembly.
In the order issued Friday evening, Justice Jawad Hassan of the LHC directed Speaker Ashraf to administer the oath to Hamza today at 11:30am.
During the hearing, Justice Jawad had asked Hamza’s lawyer why his client was not filing a case of contempt of court. At this, the lawyer said, for the time being, Hamza wanted to present the matter of the oath-taking before the court.
However, he did not rule out the option of filing a contempt of court case. The judge said LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti’s orders — where he directed the governor and president separately to administer the oath to Hamza — were not being obeyed.
“This is a matter of the court’s respect. No one should have the guts to challenge the high court’s decisions,” Justice Hassan said.
Hamza’s lawyer, while presenting his arguments before the judge, said the government was violating the Constitution by not administering the oath to the chief minister-elect.
