Hamza files plea requesting court to order Sanjrani to administer his oath

Punjab Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz has once again resorted to the Lahore High Court pleading with it to direct the Senate chairman to administer his oath to the office, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti while accepting Hamza’s plea fixed the hearing of the case for tomorrow.

“The petition will be heard tomorrow after 9am,” the CJ said.  

The Lahore High Court in its ruling earlier on Friday asked the President of Pakistan to appoint a representative for administering the oath to Punjab chief minister-elect as Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema had expressed his inability to do so.

Though there were rumours doing rounds all day long on Saturday that President Arif Alvi had appointed Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to administer the oath and the PML-N leadership was ready for the swearing-in of Hamza, but it did not happen.

In his petition submitted today (Monday), Hamza Shehbaz requested the court to direct the Senate chairman to perform the necessary constitutional duty and administer oath to his office which has been lingering for quite so long.

In the petition, law ministry, secretary to president and Senate chairman were made respondents. Besides them, chief secretary and the prime minister through principle secretary were also made party to the case.

The petition requested the court to issue an order to the administration for implementation of its Friday ruling.

On Saturday, when the expected swearing-in of Hamza Shehbaz was delayed, the PML-N leaders including Atta Ullah Tarar, Malik Ahmad Khan, Awais Leghari, Khalil Tahir Sindhu and others held a press conference announcing to file a contempt of court petition on Monday (today). But the legal advisors said that contempt plea could not be filled against the President as the latter enjoys indemnity under Article 248. So, the PML-N decided to simply request the court to order the authorities to appoint Sanjrani for oath administration.