Pakistan: PTI to move Supreme Court over Punjab CM election result

Islamabad [Pakistan], July 23 (ANI): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) announced that they will go to the Supreme Court after Pakistan Muslim League-N's candidate Hamza Shahbaz retained the post of Punjab Chief Minister against Pervez Elahi in the run-off election held in the provincial assembly.
Taking to Twitter, PTI said, "Tehreek-e-Insaaf's announcement to go to the Supreme Court. The petition will be filed in the Supreme Court tonight."
After a dramatic day, Hamza Shehbaz has been re-elected as Chief Minister of Punjab as the provincial Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari rejected the votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.
As the vote counting in the crucial session of the Punjab provincial assembly began, Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari ruled that PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi's votes will not be counted in the election of the Punjab Chief Minister in light of party head Chaudhry Shujaat's letter, the Dawn reported.
According to Mazari, the joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q, Pervaiz Elahi received 186 votes, while Hamza Shehbaz got 179 votes. However, 10 votes of the PML-Q leader were cancelled by Deputy Speaker, reducing his vote count to 176.
Before announcing the result, Mazari read Shujaat's letter out loud. "As party head of Pakistan Muslim League, I have issued directions to all my provincial members to cast their votes in favour of Muhammad Hamza Shehbaz Sharif," Mazari quoted Hussain as saying, the Dawn reported.
"As per this letter, according to the ruling of the Supreme Court, all the 10 votes cast by PML-Q leaders have been rejected," Mazari ruled.
The 10 members whose votes were not counted included Hafiz Ammar Yasir, Shuja Nawaz, Muhammad Abdullah Warraich, Parvez Elahi, Muhammad Rizwan, Sajjad Sajid Ahmed Khan, Ehsanullah Chaudhry, Muhammad Afzal, Bismah Chaudhry, and Khadija Umar.
PTI MPA Raja Basharat countered the ruling saying that the law states that the parliamentary party could issue instructions to party members.
He pointed out that the party chief was not authorized to give such instructions if the parliamentary party had decided to vote for a certain candidate. He also read the order of the Supreme Court. "The head of the parliamentary party is Parvez Elahi," he said.
However, the Deputy Speaker said that the matter had been clarified by the Supreme Court, subsequently proroguing the session, the Dawn reported.
As the voting for the Chief Minister (CM) Punjab election began, PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain refused to vote for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed candidate Pervaiz Elahi. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain excused himself from voting for Pervaiz Elahi, the joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q. It was learnt that Shujaat gave a clear message to Moonis Elahi, ARY News reported.
The crucial session of the Punjab provincial assembly for the election of the Chief Minister commenced on Friday after a three-hour delay.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Fayyazul Hassan Chohan claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) was busy with 'technical manipulation', which caused the delay in the commencement of the session.
The assembly session presided over by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari began with the recitation of the Quran and its translation, the Dawn reported. (ANI)