Punjab Assembly Speaker election to be held today: LHC

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LAHORE: Rejecting the pleas of Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and his party PML-Q, a Lahore High Court division bench on Friday directed Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari to conduct the election for the new chief minister of the province in a fair, transparent and impartial manner on April 16 (today).

A tough contest is expected between the ruling coalition’s Parvez Elahi and opposition’s joint candidate Hamza Shehbaz.

The bench further directed the deputy speaker to facilitate national/international observers, media persons, representatives of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, Free and Fair Election Network and other organisations during the election.

The bench comprising Justice Shujaat Ali Khan and Justice Jawad Hassan ordered the Punjab chief secretary and inspector general of police (IGP) to ensure foolproof security for the election day (today).

IGP Rao Sardar Ali Khan, present in court, stated that all possible measures had been taken for safe and smooth arrival of MPAs to the assembly whereas internal security of the House was to be catered for by the assembly secretary in coordination with the security staff.

Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal, also present before the court, said all the departments had been directed to facilitate the election for the leader of the House of the provincial assembly.

The bench observed that in the event of any complaint by any side, rapid action shall be taken against the delinquent(s).

The speaker and the PML-Q had challenged a decision of a single bench whereby the judge superimposed the condition that the deputy speaker shall preside over the chair despite the fact that he had himself approached the court seeking permission to conduct the election of the chief minister. They had also argued that there was a no-confidence motion pending against the deputy speaker.

However, the two-judge bench rejected the arguments of the appellants and upheld the decision of the single bench. In its 31-page judgement, it observed that since the speaker was unable to preside over the assembly proceedings due to him contesting for the post of chief minister, the deputy speaker shall exercise the powers of the speaker in terms of Section 53(3) of the Constitution for holding elections scheduled for April 16.

It observed that a bird’s eye view over the rules made it vividly clear that the question of conduct of the assembly session through the panel of chairmen only arises when the speaker or deputy speaker are not present. But during the presence of the deputy speaker, the matter cannot be referred to the panel of chairmen at the whims of the appellants, the bench added.

It remarked: “It is very strange to note that on the one hand the appellants are of the view that this court cannot intrude into the internal affairs of the assembly, but on the other they are pressing hard for passing an order in violation of the 1997 Rules.”

Rejecting another argument of the appellants, the bench stated that since the motion of no-confidence was not being considered against the deputy speaker in the assembly session scheduled for April 16, he could not be considered incompetent to preside over the said session. With these observations the bench disposed of the appeals.

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