Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Wednesday directed Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema to either administer oath to Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz or appoint anyone for it.
According to ARY News, the chief justice while announcing a reserved verdict over delay in oath taking of the newly-elected chief minister directed the governor Punjab to hold oath-taking ceremony by tomorrow.
The LHC CJ declared that the court’s order should immediately be conveyed to the governor and president, regretting that the province is being run without a chief executive for 25 days.
The court further said in its order that currently Usman Buzdar is acting as chief minister and the governor as per the Constitution is bound to take oath from the newly elected chief minister.
Earlier, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had directed President Arif Alvi to nominate another official to take oath from Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz after Governor Omar Sarfraz refused to administer oath to him.
The court ruled that the governor could not refuse to administer oath to the chief minister-elect and the president should appoint another person to administer oath to Hamza Shehbaz.
The court also directed to send a copy of the decision to the president for implementation on the orders within 24 hours.
The PML-N had approached the LHC in a bid to have the governor of Punjab administer the chief minister’s oath to Hamza Shehbaz, the newly-elected chief executive of the province.
Hamza Shehbaz stated that he had been elected as the Punjab chief minister on April 16, during a provincial assembly session held under the LHC’s direction and that he had secured 197 votes out of 371.
