Hamza’s oath by NA speaker: LHC forms full bench to hear PTI’s appeal

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti has constituted a five-member full bench to hear the intra-court appeal of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) against the single bench’s order regarding the nomination of the National Assembly (NA) speaker for administering the oath to Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz.

PTI parliamentary leader in Punjab Assembly Sibtain Khan and 16 other party MPAs filed the appeal challenging the single bench’s order against the delay in the oath-taking of newly-elected Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz by the president and the governor.

Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan will head the bench while Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, Justice Shahram Sarwar Chaudhry, Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi, and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh are part of it.

On April 30, a bench comprising Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh recommended the chief justice to form a full bench to hear the appeal.

As an interim relief, the bench had suspended the observations made in Para 9 of the impugned judgment, regarding the conduct of President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi as well as Governor of Punjab Omar Sarfraz Cheema.

The observations by the single bench read, “Although while passing the judgment this Court has enunciated the principles of law having biding effect under Article 201 of the Constitution which have been disregarded not only by the President of Pakistan but also by the Governor of the Punjab, causing non-fulfillment of his constitutional duty thereby violating Article 5 read with Article 189 and 201 of the Constitution.”

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