Former Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz Sharif has been sworn in as the 21st chief minister of Punjab after a decision of the Lahore High Court that the National Assembly speaker will administer the oath. Hamza Shehbaz’s election as the chief minister took place two weeks ago in the House of the Punjab Assembly but later on, attempts were made to stop the voting process by making it a battlefield. In this regard, Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Mohammad Mazari was also beaten while Chaudhry Parvez Elahi himself was injured in the commotion. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Muslim League-Q members walked out of the house when the voting process started and Hamza Shehbaz was elected chief minister with 196 votes. Then a new constitutional crisis arose after the refusal of Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema to administer the oath. This started a legal battle as Hamza Shehbaz approached the Lahore High Court. The court directed the President to send his representative to the swearing-in of the chief minister. Hamza Shehbaz had to approach the court multiple times for arrangements for his oath.
LHC’s Justice Jawad Hassan upheld the previous two orders of the Supreme Court and directed the Speaker National Assembly to take oath from the chief minister of Punjab on Saturday. The court also called the non-compliance of court orders by the President and the Governor regrettable and that the non-compliance of court orders has violated Articles 5, 189 and 201 of the Constitution. It is a fact that the constitutional positions of the president and the governor, by evading their constitutional responsibilities and taking the path of disobedience to the constitution, have made a dark chapter regarding the implementation of the Constitution and the law. The trend of confrontation with the institutions and deviation from the constitution can have extremely dangerous consequences for the system of the country, therefore it is necessary to stop such anti-constitutional attitudes. In this regard, the Constitution and the law must take their course in the case of the President and the Governor. Earlier, the PTI government exhibited several such tactics in the centre when a no-confidence motion was filed against prime minister Imran Khan. Instead of going for voting, the PTI first delayed the session for over three weeks, Later on, it tried to abrogate the motion, calling it a foreign conspiracy. The court had to step in. Later on, despite a court order for voting on the motion, the speaker tried to sit on the proceedings for a whole day. At the end of the day, the court opened late at night one more time. These incidents have not left any healthy marks on the parliamentary history of Pakistan.
