LAHORE – Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Hamza Shahbaz has been elected as the Chief Minister of the Punjab province by securing majority of votes in the runoff election.

Hamza Shahbaz secured 179 votes whereas Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi – the Joint Candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) – bagged 176 votes.

Although 186 votes were cast in favor of Parvez Elahi. However, the Deputy Speaker refused to count the 10 votes cast by the Muslim League (Q) MPA citing Article 63 (1) (A) of the Constitution of Pakistan. Therefore, the parliamentary strength of the opposition alliance was reduced to 176.

Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari read out a letter written by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain requesting the members of his party to vote for Hamza Shahbaz. Therefore, the Deputy Speaker said the lawmakers violated the order of Chaudhry Shujaat and rejected all the votes cast by the members of the Muslim League (Q).

At the beginning of the session, Raja Sagheer who was elected from PP-7 Rawalpindi’s constituency took oath in the house, after that PML-N leader Khalil Tahir Sindhu objected to the presence of PTI candidates Zain Qureshi and Shabbir Gujjar in the assembly and said that since Zain had not resigned from the membership of the National Assembly, he was not eligible to vote in the provincial assembly.

Meanwhile, the party added that since there was a case pending against Gujjar with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), he cannot cast his vote either.

However, PTI leader Raja Basharat, in Gujjar’s defence, said that the ECP had sent a notification in this regard and according to that, Gujjar is eligible to cast his vote.

While Deputy Speaker also rejected his objections and allowed both candidates to vote in the election.