- Lahore:
In a ‘controversial’ session of the Punjab Assembly on Thursday, five members of the provincial assembly belonging to the PTI’s reserved seat quota took oath of office, which was boycotted by government benches.
According to media reports, Batool Zain, Saira Raza and Fauzia Abbas Naseem took oath in the reserved seats for women while Habakkuk Rafiq Babu and Samuel Yaqub took oath in the minority seats.
He replaces Azmi Kardar, Ayesha Nawaz, Sajida Yusuf, Ejaz Masih and Haroon Imran Gul, who, along with 20 other members of the Assembly elected to general seats, were voted in by the Election Commission of Pakistan on April 16 to elect Hamza Shahbaz as Chief Minister. He was de-notified for deviating from the party line.
A senior official of the Punjab Law Department termed the swearing-in ceremony as “unconstitutional” and said that the meeting in which it took place had no legal status. The provincial secretary was not called by the law, which has the power to do so under the Punjab Assembly Secretariat Services Act 2022, so his oath is unconstitutional.
The controversy over the meeting began in the second week of June when PTI and PML-Q joint candidate Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervez Elahi presented the budget to Hamza in the re-poll for the July 22 Chief Ministerial election. The provincial budget was not allowed to be presented for two days in the meeting called for presentation.
Pervez Elahi personally presented the budget meeting to the Chief Secretary and Inspector General of Police of Punjab and demanded an apology from the House for the ‘illegal’ entry of police on the Assembly floor during the first polling for the Chief Minister’s Office on April 16. had been.
When both sides failed to resolve the issue amicably, the government adjourned the meeting by order of the governor and convened a new meeting at another location near the assembly to present the budget.
The Speaker also convened a meeting allegedly convened by the Opposition. The proceedings of both the meetings continued in parallel despite the issuance of an ordinance by the Governor which was later signed into law to convene the meetings of the Assembly Secretary. And / or the ability to defer can be removed.
The meeting was convened by the Speaker to repeal the Punjab Assembly Secretariat Services Act 2022 and to ‘restore’ the independent status of the Assembly for ‘Responsive Legislation’. The governor will sign it.
Speaker Pervez Elahi had adjourned the proceedings on Tuesday to July 13, but he rescheduled the meeting for Thursday so that the five PTI members who were notified by the Election Commission a day earlier on reserved seats would rule the provincial assembly. PML-N can take oath before challenging the commission’s orders in court.
With the inclusion of five members in the Punjab Assembly, the number of voters for Pervez Elahi has increased from 168 to 173 in the re-polling for the post of Chief Minister while Hamza Shahbaz has 177 votes. The by-elections will decide the future of both candidates.
