ISLAMABAD, JUL 26: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari’s ruling in the Punjab Chief Minister election and ruled that the Pervez Elahi is the chief minister of the province.

Earlier Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial had said that the judgement would be issued at 5:45pm and later it was scheduled to be announced at 7:30pm. However, the verdict was announced after a three-hour delay via short order.

The bench also ordered that Punjab Governor Baligh ur Rehman administer the oat to Elahi at 11:30pm. It also declared that any appointments made by Hamza Shahbaz are illegal.  

The proceedings went on for three days — Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday — as lawyers from all the parties presented their arguments.

Elahi — who had been defeated by Hamza Shahbaz on July 22 during the Punjab CM’s election after 10 PML-Q votes were rejected by Deputy Speaker Mazari — had challenged the ruling in the SC.

The SC formed a three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and including Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan — to hear the case, but the coalition government objected to it and demanded a full court take up the matter as they did not want “bench-fixing”.

However, after hearing arguments from all sides for nearly eight hours on Monday, the SC decided not to form a full court bench, saying that the same bench would hear the case.

As the SC decided not to form a full bench, the ruling coalition and the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) decided to boycott the apex court’s hearing.