ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Saturday summoned Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari to appear before it today and issued notices to Chief Minister Hamza Shahbaz and others in a petition filed by PML-Q.

PML-Q leader Pervez Elahi had challenged the controversial ruling of the deputy speaker, rejecting 10 votes polled by the PML-Q MPAs in his favour during the chief minister election.

A three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar — is holding the hearing at the Supreme Court’s Lahore registry.

At the outset of today’s hearing, PTI’s counsel Ali Zafar informed the court about the assembly proceedings that took place during the election on Friday. The re-election was ordered by the apex court on July 1.

When asked by Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan about how many members were present in the house, Barrister Zafar said that there were 370 lawmakers in the provincial legislature when the election took place. “186 votes for Pervez Elahi while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes,” he argued and added that constitutionally Elahi won the CM election.

He said that the deputy speaker rejected 10 votes in his ruling citing the Supreme Court order in Article 63A interpretation case and ignoring the role of the parliamentary party.

At this, CJP Bandial said the court would summon Dupty Speaker Dost Mazari and issue notices to other parties as well.

“We wish to personally hear from the deputy speaker. Only the deputy speaker can tell us which paragraph he was referring to,” Justice Bandial said.

The deputy speaker has been summoned by the court at 2pm.

In addition, the top court has sent notices to Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz, the Punjab chief secretary and the advocate general for Punjab.

CJP Bandial said that the deputy speaker should come to the court with all the relevant documents and not be “frightened” as this is “just a legal procedure”.

The bench will resume hearing at 2:30pm.

“The matter in issue seems more likely to be a controversy regarding the proper understanding or comprehension of the statement of law in our aforesaid judgement (paragraph 3 in Article 63A’s order) rather than of interpretation as such of a constitutional provision,” a short written order read issued after the initial hearing.

‘Pakistan not far from Sri Lanka moment’

Meanwhile, PTI  Chairman Imran Khan slammed the coalition government for bringing the country to its knees politically and economically.

In a series of tweets, the PTI chairman said that the people of Pakistan have had enough and will not allow these mafias to continue their loot and plunder. 

“We are not far from Sri Lanka moment when our people pour out into the streets.”

PML-Q petition

Following an unexpected move by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, PTI and PML-Q filed a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) Lahore Registry against Dost Mazari’s ruling which cited the Supreme Court’s opinion on Article 63(A) for rejecting 10 votes polled in favour of Pervez Elahi “against the party line.”

Earlier, after a crucial session of the Punjab assembly, PML-N’s candidate Hamza Shahbaz retained the post of the Punjab CM against Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi through a three-vote victory.

Following the counting of votes, the deputy speaker, citing Article 63A of the Constitution, rejected 10 votes cast by the PML-Q members. As a result, Hamza received 179 votes, while Elahi managed to bag 176 votes.

After the election, a joint parliamentary party meeting of PTI and PML-Q deliberated on Dost Mazari’s ruling. Later, they reached the apex court’s Lahore Registry to submit the petition.

Pervez Elahi’s counsel Aamir Saeed Rawn filed the petition in the SC in which Hamza Shahbaz, Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari and the chief secretary were made parties.

While talking to the media, Aamir Saeed said Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari had interpreted the SC verdict wrong, therefore, Chief Justice Pakistan (CJP) should take sou motu notice.

On the occasion, PTI leader Yasmeen Rashid said that “186 members of Punjab assembly are present here, therefore I request that court should be opened immediately.”