ISLAMABAD, July 26(ABC): Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) will now announce the verdict in the Punjab chief minister’s election case at 7:30pm — after the top judge previously said that the judgement would be issued at 5:45pm.
The proceedings went on for three days — Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday — as lawyers from all the parties presented their arguments.
Pervez Elahi, who had been defeated by Hamza Shahbaz on July 22 after 10 PML-Q votes were rejected by Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly Dost Mazari, had challenged the deputy speaker’s ruling in the SC.
The SC formed a three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and including Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan — to hear the case, but the coalition government objected to it and demanded a full court take up the matter as they did not want “bench-fixing”.
However, after hearing arguments from all sides for nearly eight hours on Monday, the SC decided not to form a full court bench, saying that the same bench would hear the case.
As the SC decided not to form a full bench, the ruling coalition and the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) decided to boycott the apex court’s hearing.