LAHORE - The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday turned down the objection raised by the registrar office on the petition filed by the opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz seeking court’s help to hold the election for the CM's office.
During the hearing, the High Court summoned the Advocate General Punjab immediately. In his arguments before the court, PML-N lawyer Azam Nazir Tarar said the largest province by population is deprived of administrative head. Meanwhile, the court adjourned the proceedings of the case for a while. In what makes it a rare case in Punjab’s political history, the Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly also Friday approached the Lahore High Court to seek relief against the orders of the Speaker Ch Parvez Elahi who had stripped the former of his powers through a notification two days back.
The deputy speaker filed a constitutional petition in the LHC through his lawyer Haroon Rashid Mir pleading that the impugned order of the speaker be set aside declaring it without lawful authority and without legal effect.
It may be recalled here that following the submission of nomination papers for the election of chief minister, Speaker Parvez Elahi had delegated all his powers to the deputy speaker. But when the deputy speaker called an Assembly session to elect the chief minister, the speaker, through a notification withdrew these powers from him. The speaker also stopped the secretary assembly from issuing a gazette notification of deputy speaker’s orders.