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LAHORE: Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman on Sunday administered the oath to the newly elected Punjab cabinet after a drama that ended with Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s shock defeat in the contest for the slot as provincial assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari decided not to count the votes of PML-Q lawmakers.
The oath-taking ceremony was held at Governor House which started with the recitation of the Holy Quran.
Among those who took oath were Rana Iqbal, Maher Ijaz Achlana, Malik Nadeem Kamran, Bilal Yasin, , YawarZaman, Manshaullah Butt, Ali Haider Gilani, RanaMashhood, Khawaja Imran Nazir, Hasan Murtaza, Bilal Asghar Warraich, Asad Khokhar, Ahmed Ali Aulakh, Saba Sadiq, RanaLiaqat Ali and Saiful Malook Khokhar are included.
Moreover, oath was also administered to Fida Hussain Wattoo, Sabtain Bukhari, Imran Khalid Butt, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, Khawaja Salman Rafiq, Siddique Baloch, Jahangir Khanzada, Kazim Pirzada, Iqbal Gujjar, Khalil Tahir Sandhu, Zeeshan Rafiq, Sania Ashiq, Uzma Bukhari, Chaudhry Shafiq, Col (Rtd) Ayub, Chaudhry Iqbal Gujjar, Tanveer Aslam, Rana Ijaz Noon, Ghulam Qasim, Col (Rtd) Rana Muhammad Tariq, Zaheer Iqbal, Ali Haider Gillani, Qasim Abbas Langa, Malik Asad Khokhar and Ashraf Ansari.
Apart of 37 members, Malik Ahmad Khan, Khawaja Salman Rafique, Attaullah Tarar and Awais Leghari did not take oath.
Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Sunday while reacting to Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz’s cabinet oath-taking ceremony said that a ‘ship-sized’ cabinet oath is a violation of the Supreme Court’s decision.
He said that the Trustee Chief Minister opened the mouth of the treasury of the Punjab government to save his post and one out of every three people has been made a minister. Taking a dig at Punjab CM, he said today, that the cabinet oath is no less than a joke, adding that the Trustee Chief Minister is making a mockery of the Supreme Court’s order by giving 63 ministers or minister-like privileges.
He said that the swearing of the Punjab cabinet and the size of the cabinet cannot save these rulers, those rulers who are guilty of unconstitutional actions should also be held in contempt of court.
The Supreme Court on Saturday provisionally allowed Hamza Shehbaz to continue as a ‘trustee’ Chief Minister of Punjab with limited powers, as it observed that the ruling of the Punjab Assembly’s Deputy Speaker regarding rejection of votes of all Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) lawmakers in the run-off election for the CM was prima facie in violation of the Court’s judgment and Article 63-A of the Constitution.
A three-judge bench of the SC, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, assembled at the court’s Lahore registry at 11am to take up a petition hurriedly filed on Friday midnight by Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi, a candidate for the CM’s office against Hamza, against the ruling of Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar were the other members of the bench.At the outset of the hearing, PTI senator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, on behalf of Mr Elahi, explained to the bench the CM’s election held in light of the Supreme Court’s judgement passed on likely seemed to be a controversy regarding the proper understanding or comprehension of the statement of law in the judgment rather than an interpretation of a constitutional provision.
Before rising for a break, the bench sought personal appearance of the deputy speaker along with the record of the election proceedings. The bench also issued notices to the chief minister, Punjab advocate general and an additional attorney general, as it was told that Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar Asuaf Ali was out of the country.
