LHC Chief Justice Amir Bhatti is expected to take up the petition shortly.
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The Punjab Assembly (PA) has to elect the new leader of the house after Usman Buzdar resigned last month. PML-Q's Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and PML-N's Hamza, who has secured the support of PTI's dissident lawmakers — the Jahangir Khan Tarin and Aleem Khan groups — are expected to go head to head in the race to become the next chief minister.
The petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, named the province of Punjab through its chief secretary, the PA speaker and deputy speaker, and the provincial police chief as respondents.
It stated that the inaction in holding elections for the post was "based on mala fide, with [the] intent to defeat the mandatory constitutional requirements, making political gains by using public office(s) and authority is evidently inchoate; arbitrary; unreasonable; irrational and without jurisdiction".
The petition said that after Buzdar's resignation, the nomination papers of Hamza and Elahi were submitted in the provincial assembly, which were accepted, and then the PA was called on April 3 for electing the new chief minister. However, the session was adjourned.
Consequently, the petitioner added, the PA deputy speaker directed to hold the session on April 6 at 07:30pm but the assembly premises were sealed and members weren't allowed to enter the building.
"In order to exhibit the clear will of the people’s representatives, the political parties who nominated and support the petitioner for the slot of chief minister, held a session in a hotel next to the building of the [PA] and passed a resolution in favour of the petitioner by a majority of 200 votes," the petition said, referring to the opposition's mock assembly session.
The petition also argued that under these circumstances, a constitutional crisis had been triggered which was "never witnessed before."
The PML-N leader called on the court to issue directives for convening the session of the provincial assembly "forthwith" and the for the process of the election to be "completed without any adjournment in any manner whatsoever".
It also requested the court to restrict the respondents from stopping anyone from attending the session or voting.
Meanwhile, the court registrar raised objections on Hamza's plea explaining that orders of the assembly speaker cannot be challenged in the court. Therefore, the PML-N leader's petition will be taken up with the objections.
from Latest Pakistan News - SUCH TV https://ift.tt/yB2TOHN
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