World / Pakistan PM Shahbaz Sharif Son Hamza Sharif sworn Punjab province CM

Pakistan : Hamza Sharif, the son of Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, took oath as the Chief Minister of Punjab province on Saturday. Hamza was administered the oath by the Governor of Punjab, Baligur Rahman. The swearing-in ceremony took place at the 'Governor House' in Punjab. A day earlier, amidst dramatic developments, he was re-elected to the post by a margin of just three votes. The vice president rejected 10 important votes of his rival candidate.

On the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Punjab Assembly went to polls on Friday for the post of Chief Minister. Hamza was declared the winner of the election. However, his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party does not have a majority in the assembly after the crucial by-elections held on July 17.

Chaudhary Parvez Elahi's 10 votes were rejected

Hamza was elected to Punjab by a margin of just three votes after Deputy Speaker Mohammad Majri rejected 10 votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) party candidate Chaudhry Parvez Elahi citing Article 63-A of the Constitution. To be able to sit again in the chair of the Chief Minister. The PML-Q is an ally of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

In Punjab's 368-member assembly, Hamza's party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got 179 votes while Elahi's party got 176 votes. Elahi's PML-Q's 10 votes were not counted on the grounds that she had violated the orders of her party chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.

Majri said party chief Hussain had instructed PML-Q members to vote for Hamza instead of Elahi. He said, "I gave the decision to reject 10 votes of PML-Q because its chief Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain wrote to me saying that his party MLAs should not have voted for the PTI-PMLQ candidate. I called on the phone. Spoke to Shujaat and he confirmed that it was mentioned in his letter."

Hamza defeated Ilahi for the second time

However, the PTI-PMLQ legislators opposed the Deputy Speaker's decision. This is the second time that Hamza has defeated Elahi for the post of Chief Minister of Punjab. The last time he had won was on April 16, but there was a delay of several days in administering the oath to him as the then governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema refused to administer the oath to him.

He was later administered the oath on 30 April by the President of the National Assembly, Raja Pervez Ashraf, on the instructions of the Lahore High Court. Following Majri's decision to overrule the votes of 10 PML-Q members, PTI said it would move the Supreme Court to challenge the decision. Elahi said he would challenge the decision in the Supreme Court as the vice-president had violated the court's order.

Things will stand like Sri Lanka: Imran Khan

Earlier, PTI chairman Khan had warned that Sri Lanka-like situation would arise in the country if the government machinery was used to reverse the mandate. On the other hand, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz said that what her party did on Friday was a "tit-tit" reply to Khan's party. Maryam tweeted, "PML-N has not forgotten the treatment of her. Now the rules of the game will be the same for all, otherwise PML-N knows how to play it better."