ISLAMABAD: Following the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) verdict of a recount of votes in the election for Punjab chief minister, PML-N leader Attaullah Tarar on Thursday claimed that his party has a majority of 9 votes in the Punjab Assembly.
Talking to journalists, Tarar said that the party respects all the verdicts issued by the courts.
Speaking of the LHC verdict, he said: “The court neither nullified the previous elections nor ordered fresh elections.”
Tarar said the court has directed that the previous voting process be carried out after the exclusion of 25 votes.
The court ordered that Hamza Shahbaz will remain in office till the conduct of run-off elections.
Giving details about the numbers held by each party, he said that PML-N has the support of 177 MPs while the alliance of PML-Q and PTI has 168 votes.
He said that they are confident that PML-N will win tomorrow.
The LHC accepted the appeals of the PTI filed against the election of Hamza Shahbaz as chief minister, and ordered a recount of votes with the exclusion of the 25 defecting party members who voted for him.
A larger bench of the LHC— headed by Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan — and comprising Justice Shahid Jamil, Justice Shehram Sarwar, Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh issued the 4-1 verdict today.
Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi dissented with his fellow judges.
Commenting on the verdict, Geo News anchor and legal analyst Muneeb Farooq said that under Article 130(4) of the Constitution, if the candidate fails to get a majority vote in the provincial assembly then a second round of vote is held.
The LHC has directed that a Punjab Assembly session be called on July 1 at 4pm for the second round of vote.
Whichever candidate will win the majority vote on July 1 will be the chief minister, Farooq said. The court has, however, given protection to the decisions made by the Hamza Shahbaz as chief minister, he added.
He said that the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker will preside over the session on July 1 as Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi is a contestant for the post.
Explaining the verdict, Farooq said there is no condition of securing 186 votes in the second round of vote, adding that whoever will receive the majority will be the chief minister.
Meanwhile, talking to Geo News, PTI leader Mehmood-ur-Rasheed said that the LHC has approved all the three petitions filed by his party.
“Hamza is no more chief minister now,“ he said, adding that a new election would be held for the slot of CM Punjab.
He congratulated the people of Punjab on their success in court. Criticising the PML-N, he said that Hamza Shahbaz, despite having no majority in the house, was enjoying the powers of CM for over two months.
He vowed that the upcoming election for the Punjab CM slot will be won by the PTI.
Responding to a question, the PTI leader said that the verdict, in this case, will definitely have an impact on the by-polls