ISLAMABAD: Former chief minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz on Friday challenged the Supreme Court order which set aside the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker’s ruling which discarded ten votes of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), thus leading to Hamza’s victory as the provincial chief executive.
Hamza, through Mansoor Awan, filed a review petition in the apex court against the July 26 order which thwarted former deputy speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari’s decision and declared Pervez Elahi as the new CM of the country’s political heartland.
The PML-N leader prayed that a full court be constituted to decide the matters involving the interpretation and application of Article 63A of the Constitution in this regard, as well as other connected matters and that they are heard together by the full court or at least a 12-member bench.
The review petition submitted that without “prejudice, the order, by holding that directions of the Parliamentary Party sans any role of the Party/Party Head is binding”, contradicted the apex court’s ruling dated May 17, 2022, on Article 63A given in Presidential Reference No. 1 of 2022 wherein the SC extended the right of a political party under Article 17(2) to Article 63A, and arrived “at the conclusion that a vote contrary to the party policy is to be disregarded and not counted”.
It further maintained that the opinion of the SC in the presidential reference was contrary to the letter of Article 63A and that votes polled contrary to the directions could not be disregarded.
