Lahore (HRNW) The Supreme Court of Pakistan’s decision on Article 63-A, especially the part of the ruling that the vote of defecting lawmakers would not be counted, has possibly undermined Hamza Shahbaz Sharif’s election as Punjab Chief Minister.
Hamza Shahbaz was set to address a press conference Tuesday evening but he canceled the event at the eleventh hour after the court handed down its verdict.
Hamza has called his legal team to his home for a meeting,media reported.
Without counting the vote of the dissident PTI MPAs Hamza Shahbaz Sharif does not have the simple majority of 186 MPAs in the Punjab Assembly.
His father Shehbaz Sharif, however, does not face such a predicament as none of the dissident PTA MNAs had voted for him.
Shehbaz bagged 174 votes, two above the required number of 172, on April 11, two days after Imran Khan was voted out by the Parliament.
Media reported that constitutional experts have advised Hamza Shahbaz against stepping down immediately, saying that a final decision should be delayed.
They said that although the governor has the powers to ask the chief minister to get a vote of confidence, it would still take some time and before that the no-confidence motions against the speaker and deputy speaker, which remain pending so far, would be put to vote.
Meanwhile, the PTI has claimed victory after the court judgment and the party spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry demanded that both Shehbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz must step down now.
He claimed that both the federal and Punjab government had effectively ended, and the National and Punjab assembly must be dissolved.
He said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had agreed to the PTI’s viewpoint.
Fawad also said that under Article 51A the president had the power to dissolve the assemblies.
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