LHC accepted PTI petition which stated that Hamza\u2019s election was \u2018illegal\u2019
\nLAHORE
\nThe Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday ordered the recounting of votes for the election of the Punjab chief minister and said the votes of dissident lawmakers should be excluded from the count.
\nThe PTI, in their writ petitions, had stated that Hamza\u2019s election in the Punjab Assembly was \u201cillegal\u201d and did not follow due processes and that his notification as the chief of Punjab must also be set aside as it was not in line with the law. A third petition pleaded that Hamza\u2019s oath-taking be declared illegal.
\nThe five-member larger bench gave a 4:1 decision on the matter.
\n\u201cThe decision by August Supreme Court of not counting votes of defecting members of a political party is squarely applicable to the election of Chief Minister held on 14th April 2022,\u201d said the judgement.
\nAccording to the written judgement from the LHC, it was an \u201cundeniable fact\u201d that 25 PTI MPAs had voted in favour of Hamza Shahbaz, despite the party nominating PML-Q leader Pervez Elahi as its candidate. The dissident lawmakers\u2019 move went against Article 63 A(1)(b) of the Constitution.
\n\u201cThe emphasised part of the order, ibid, discloses the intent behind the decision that possibility of defection from the Party line, policy or direction isto be curbed, at the time of poll by the Presiding Officer, regardless of declaration or action by Party Head. It is understood that presence in the House, enlistment on voter list and casting of vote is not prohibited, however the vote so cast, is held not countable.\u201d
\nThe court further directed to \u201c recount the votes\u201d and to exclude \u201c25 votes of the defecting members\u201d and said the provincial governor must call a session \u201con 1 st July 2022 (Friday) at 4:00 pm without fail\u201d.
\n\u201cAs a consequence, if required majority, under Article 130(4), is not secured by any candidate, he shall proceed for second and further polls under its provisos for completing the process of election as required under Article 130(4), unless a candidate is elected by majority votes.\u201d
\nJudge Muhammad Sajid Mehmood Sethi declared that all acts and actions taken by Hamza Shahbaz as chief minister would \u201cnot be adversely affected\u201d by the high court\u2019s order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LHC accepted PTI petition which stated that Hamza\u2019s election was \u2018illegal\u2019 LAHORE The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday ordered the recounting of votes for the election of the Punjab chief minister and said the votes of dissident lawmakers should be excluded from the count. The PTI, in their writ petitions, had stated that Hamza\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[452,1669,3464,9204,277],"class_list":{"0":"post-269046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-election","9":"tag-lhc","10":"tag-punjab-cm","11":"tag-re-counting","12":"tag-votes"},"yoast_head":"\n