Hamza Shehbaz to move LHC
Responding to the ongoing political crisis in Punjab after Speaker Pervaiz Elahi’s order to seal the provincial legislature, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday said that the Lahore High Court will deal with the Punjab Assembly issue.
The crisis in Punjab worsened on Wednesday after Pervaiz Elahi and Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Khan Mazari came face to face, with the former barring the latter from holding the provincial assembly session in the evening by installing barbed wires and locking the assembly gates. CJP Umar Ata Bandial made the remarks during the suo moto hearing into a case relating to the ongoing constitutional crisis in the country that emerged after the ruling of the NA deputy speaker and the subsequent dissolution of the Lower House on the advice of PM Imran Khan.
A five-member larger bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Aijazul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam, and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel was hearing the case. At the outset of Thursday’s hearing, CJP Umar Ata Bandial said that their focus is on the National Assembly deputy speaker’s ruling.
