LHC to hear Hamza’s Oath-taking plea today

From Abid Usman

LAHORE: The Registrar Office of Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday retract objection over the petition of Punjab’s Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz.
Chief Justice LHC Muhammad Ameer Bhatti will hear the petition Thursday (today). The Registrar Office of the high court had objected that the governor could not be made a party in the case. The petition was amended and the Principal Secretary to the Governor has now been made party in the case.
The petition of Hamza Shehbaz with regard to his oath taking after election as the chief minister of Punjab was also returned back yesterday with the objection that the plea was incomplete.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has approached the Lahore High Court in a bid to have the governor of Punjab administer the chief minister’s oath to Hamza Shahbaz, the newly elected chief executive of the province.
Hamza Shahbaz stated that he had been elected as the Punjab chief minister on April 16, during a provincial assembly session held under the LHC’s direction and that he had secured 197 votes out of 371. He reiterated that he had won the simple majority in the contest, after which the Acting Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari provided copies of the result to Punjab Governor Omer Sarfraz Cheema to fulfill the requirement of oath under the rules.
The petitioner said that the governor had, however, been reluctant to administer the oath to him.