Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Asim Hafeez remarked on Wednesday that it was compulsory for a chief minister to have round-the-clock support from a majority of lawmakers in the house.<\/p>\n
He passed these remarks as a five-member bench comprising him, Justice Abid Aziz Shaikh, Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal, Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, and Justice Muzamil Akhtar Shabir took up Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi\u2019s plea challenging Governor Balighur Rehman\u2019s orders to de-notify him as the provincial chief executive.<\/p>\n
The hearing coincides with an ongoing Punjab Assembly session which has been marred by two consecutive days of protests from the opposition, who are demanding Elahi take the vote of confidence.<\/p>\n
Last month, the Punjab governor denotified Elahi as chief minister of the largest province in a bid to forestall ousted premier Imran Khan\u2019s plan to dissolve the Punjab Assembly.<\/p>\n
In his order dated Dec 22, the governor had said that since the chief minister had refrained from taking a vote of confidence at the appo\u00adi\u00adnted day and time, he ceased to hold office. Rehman, however, had asked Elahi to continue working as chief minister until a successor takes charge.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, Elahi approached the court, saying the move was \u201cunconstitutional, unlawful and of no legal effect\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the previous hearing, the LHC had reinstated the PML-Q leader as the chief minister after he submitted an undertaking assuring the court that he would not dissolve the provincial assembly until the next hearing (today).<\/p>\n
At the outset of the hearing today, Justice Shaikh remarked that the matter under discussion had not yet been solved.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will only reach a conclusion when they [the Punjab government] take the vote of confidence,\u201d the governor\u2019s lawyers said, adding that Elahi had a lot of time to take the trust vote after the previous hearing but he did not do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis clearly shows their ill intention,\u201d he stated and then requested the court to fix a date for the vote of confidence.<\/p>\n
Here, Justice Shaikh turned to Elahi\u2019s lawyer and asked: \u201cHow many days will be suitable for you to take the vote of confidence? We will fix a time accordingly and your problem will be solved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elahi\u2019s lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar pointed out that the PA speaker\u2019s ruling against the governor\u2019s orders of a no-trust vote had not yet been challenged.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the question is whether Elahi has the assembly\u2019s support for the post of the chief minister,\u201d the court said. \u201cIs there no clarity yet on whether the vote of confidence should be taken or not?<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Justice Hafeez said that the chief minister should have the confidence of the majority of lawmakers round-the-clock.<\/p>\n
The court then asked Elahi\u2019s lawyer if his counsel was accepting the offer for the vote of confidence or not. Barrister Zafar replied that they had rejected the offer.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, Justice Shaikh said that if a consensus could not be reached between the governor and the chief minister, then the case would be heard on \u201cmerit\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe matter has now gone beyond a reasonable time,\u201d he remarked, adding that the court would have to look at the assembly dissolution, violation of the governor\u2019s orders and the way forward.<\/p>\n
At that, Barrister Zafar started presenting his arguments in the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a majority of PTI\u2019s Punjab lawmakers come to the governor and tell him that they have lost confidence in the CM, only then can a vote of confidence be called,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zafar contended that the governor did not provide suitable reasons for the trust vote, adding that his client would have had no problem with the vote if a \u201clegal and constitutional procedure\u201d was adopted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone is trying to create a situation of instability [in the province], we will object to it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The hearing was then adjourned till 1:30pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Asim Hafeez remarked on Wednesday that it was compulsory for a chief minister to have round-the-clock support from a majority of lawmakers in the house. He passed these remarks as a five-member bench comprising him, Justice Abid Aziz Shaikh, Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal, Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh, and Justice Muzamil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-306781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n