Pakistan: Punjab CM bars PML-N MPAs from leaving Lahore

Islamabad [Pakistan], June 29 (ANI): Pakistan's Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz has barred his party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPAs from leaving Lahore till further orders.
Shehbaz has summoned a Parliamentary Party meeting of his party today at the CM house and all the party MPAs have been directed to be present over there to attend the meetings at 12 pm, ARY News reported citing sources.
According to the sources, the PML-N will show its number strength in the Punjab Assembly.
Earlier, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam Chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain rejected the rumours about supporting Hamza Shehbaz as the CM of Punjab.
Hussain said that their candidate for the Chief Ministership of Punjab is Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. All of the PML-Q members would vote for him in case of CM elections, he added.
Earlier in May, The Lahore High Court issued notices to Punjab chief minister Hamza Shehbaz and four others on separate petitions filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and PML-Q's leader and Punjab Assembly speaker Chaudhary Parvez Elahi requesting the court to declare CM elections as illegal.
The High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti clubbed both the petitions together. Besides Hamza, the court served notices to the Punjab chief secretary, Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Mohammad Mazari, Punjab governor's principal secretary and Punjab Assembly's secretary.
During the hearing, PTI's lawyer Ali Zafar, in his argument, said that a candidate requires 186 votes to win the election while referring to the Supreme Court's interpretation of Article 63-A, related to the disqualification of lawmakers over defection.
It stated, "The scope of Article 63A of the Constitution and its applicability on a particular member's right to cast a vote had been interpreted by the apex court on a presidential reference that the votes of defectors could not be counted," the Dawn reported.
The report said Justice Bhatti asked that the court be informed of when the SC's interpretation of Article 63-A would be applicable and adjourned the hearing till May 25.
The petitioner had asked the court to declare the PML-N's elections unlawful, alleging that the elections were held by forcing members to cast votes in favour of Hamza. It said that in the total votes, 25 votes were from defectors which were also counted in the total votes received by the Punjab CM. (ANI)