LAHORE:A two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court on Saturday admitted for hearing an intra-court appeal filed by the PTI members of the Punjab Assembly against yesterday’s LHC decision in which it had directed the National Assembly (NA) speaker to administer the oath to Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz.
The LHC bench, comprising of Justice Muhammad Sajid Mahmood Sethi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, issued notices to the parties linked to the case. The judges also recommended formation of a larger bench to hear the intra-court appeal.
Earlier, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members of the Punjab Assembly (MPAs) filed the intra-court appeal in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the court’s yesterday’s decision in which it had directed the National Assembly (NA) speaker to administer the oath to Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz today.
The Register in his reaction marked objection to the intra-court appeal but fixed it for hearing by a two-member LHC bench. In the appeal, filed by PTI’s 17 MPAs, including Muhammad Sibtain Khan, through Azhar Siddique Advocate, federal and provincial governments and Hamza Shehbaz were made the respondents.
In their petition, the MPAs said that police had entered the Punjab Assembly building on the CM election’s day on Hamza’s order; that the PTI MPAs were encouraged to go against the party lines, and the LHC was not authorized to interfere in the parliamentary proceedings. The petitioners went on to say that the decision given by a single bench of the high court was unconstitutional, and that harsh words were used in it against both President Arif Alvi and Punjab Governor Umar Sarfaraz Cheema.
“Hamza’s petition for the oath-taking should have been heard by at least a seven-member bench rather than a single bench of the LHC,” read the appeal. It was argued that both the president and the governor were not answerable to any court. “Therefore, it is prayed to the larger bench of the LHC to declare single bench’s verdict null and void,” the petition stated.