LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) Friday reinstated the provincial government and Parvez Elahi as chief minister after he promised the court that he wouldn’t dissolve the Punjab Assembly if he regained control of the post.
Elahi was asked by the LHC to make a promise not to dissolve the assembly because if he did, it may exacerbate the province’s already-existing political unrest.
The Punjab governor’s directives were not subject to a vote of confidence by the chief minister, since the court did not mandate.
After several hours had passed, Punjab Governor Baligh-ur-Rehman revoked the chief minister’s notification of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader.
The case was considered by a five-judge panel that was led by Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and comprised of Judges Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal, Tariq Saleem Sheikh, Asim Hafeez, and Muzamil Akhtar Shabir.
The court requested Elahi’s attorney, Barrister Ali Zafar, to speak with his client about the undertaking during two 10-minute and one-hour pauses.
The PML-Q leader gave the court a guarantee that the party would not split, and the court reinstalled him as chief minister. Additionally, the LHC served notices on each party involved in the case and called them on January 11.
The hearing today
Elahi’s attorney Barrister Zafar gave the bench an explanation of how his client was chosen as the chief minister at the beginning of today’s session. He also brought up the Supreme Court decision supporting the PML-Q leader.
Then Zafar went over the two constitutional procedures for ousting a chief minister.
“A chief minister may be ousted by a vote of confidence; they are chosen by an assembly. The second step is to request a vote of confidence from the chief minister, according to Zafar. He continued by saying that a session may be convened if the governor believed the chief minister had lost support.
The governor cannot ask the chief minister to take a vote of confidence in less than two hours if PTI claims that it is against the chief minister, according to Zafar.
Elahi’s legal representative insisted that “all members ought to be served a notice.” Occasionally, he continued, some lawmakers are out of the country, in which case the speaker can issue a 10-day warning.
Justice Sheikh commented, “It is also possible that the speaker holds voting right away. He said that a 10-day notice is not required.
Zafar then informed the judge that the governor and the speaker are in charge of calling the assembly session. He continued by saying that it is up to the speaker to set the date.
The chief minister did not lose the vote of confidence because of what the governor did (denotifying him). A session of the assembly cannot be called by the chief minister, according to Zafar.
Justice Sheikh questioned if it was the speaker’s right to call the meeting. Zafar answered in the positive to this.
Justice Sheikh questioned, “If the law employs the term secretary, how is it the speaker’s prerogative? ”
The speaker is supposed to call the session to order and adjourn it, according to Rule 24, Zafar then informed the bench.
Zafar was informed by Justice Sheikh that the issue concerns a suitable time frame.
“The Constitution grants the governor the authority to call a session. According to the rules, the speaker must announce the meeting date, according to Zafar. According to Barrister Zafar, the chief minister must physically appear to accept the vote of confidence; he cannot do so in the air.
“The governor is not permitted to assert that the chief minister did not accept the vote of confidence. How could the CM have taken the vote of confidence when there was no session, Zafar questioned.
The attorney said that the governor and speaker disagreed on whether to hold the meeting.
Justice Sheikh intervened at this moment and said there had been no polling, adding that if the PML-Q and PTI had the majority, there would be no problem and a date could be set.
“At this time, all we ask for is the suspension of the removal from office notification. According to the governor’s findings, Parvez Elahi did not accept the vote of confidence,” said Zafar. Additionally, he asserted that the governor had broken his oath.
According to the Mustafa Ampex case, there is no government if there is no cabinet, said Justice Abid.
Then, Justice Sheikh questioned whether the chief minister would dissolve the parliament if the high court quickly reinstated him. “The Manzoor Wattoo case raised a related issue. So, could you promise us that the assembly won’t be dissolved?”
In response, Barrister Zafar stated that the parliament cannot be dissolved because a no-confidence motion has been made. The motion for no-confidence was immediately withdrawn, the court informed the attorney.
The court stated, “If your [client] dissolves the assembly, the petition would become inoperative and a new crisis will be upon us.”
The hearing was then put on hold for ten minutes as the court asked Zafar to speak with his client.
After the session resumed, Barrister Zafar stated that he would not be in a position to provide the court an undertaking at this time and pleaded with the judge to reinstate the chief minister and direct him to refrain from dissolving the assembly.
The LHC bench said that the court could not grant anyone temporary relief in the absence of guarantee. The chief minister has a constitutional right, so how can the court prevent him from utilising it? Judge Hafeez enquired.
The court then again postponed the hearing, this time for an hour, and instructed the attorney to speak with his client.
Barrister Zafar provided an undertaking from Elahi when the court resumed. The PML-Q leader was then given a “temporary reprieve” by the court and was allowed to resume his duties as chief minister.
a different bench
The petition was supposed to be heard earlier today, but the bench was dissolved after a judge withdrew from the case.
A five-person bench led by Justice Abid Sheikh had been assembled by the LHC CJ to hear the plea.
However, Justice Sheikh noted that Justice Farooq Haider had frequently defended the petitioner and had asked to be removed from the bench as soon as the hearing began.
The chief justice was then contacted about the issue once more. Justice Haider was thereafter replaced by Justice Hafeez on the bench.
Petition
Elahi has asked the court to rule that the governor’s denotification of him as chief minister was “illegal” in the lawsuit.
It notifies the court that Sibtain Khan, the speaker of the Punjab Assembly, was asked to call a meeting for a vote of confidence. The speaker did not call for a session because one was already in session, it was added.
The petition asserts that “no action may be taken against any chief minister for the speaker’s behaviour.”
Through his main secretary and the provincial chief secretary, Governor Rehman was designated as the respondent in the case.
As MPs on the treasury and opposition benches appeared to be at odds about who will get the CM’s Office and who will take over next, the political crisis in Punjab does not appear to be resolved anytime soon.
The governor, a PML-N member, had instructed the chief minister to hold a vote of confidence at 4 p.m. on December 21 in an effort to remove him.
The ruling was deemed to be against the Constitution by Punjab Assembly Speaker Muhammad Sibtain Khan Punjab, a leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who also called for the adjournment of today’s session till Friday.
The governor responded by disagreeing with the speaker and rejecting his justifications for not calling a session. The verdict, he continued, “has no bearing” on the directive to call a session for the vote on confidence.
The governor then de-notified Elahi as the chief minister in the early hours of Friday, citing his resistance to casting a vote of confidence.
Elahi was de-notified as chief minister, and the provincial cabinet was dissolved, according to Rehman, who claimed that he believed Elahi lacked the support of the Punjab Assembly.
However, both the PTI and the PML-Q rejected the announcement and filed a complaint with the Lahore High Court.
