The Lahore High Court (LHC) has summoned the attorney general of Pakistan (AGP) and the advocate general (AG), Punjab in Chief Minister-elect Hamza Shehbaz’s oath-taking case at 2:00 PM today (Tuesday).
During the hearing of Hamza’s second petition for the appointment of a person to administer the oath to him, LHC Chief Justice (CJ) Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti questioned why President Arif Alvi had not yet appointed someone to administer the oath to Hamza. “Why doesn’t the court use its constitutional authority and appoint someone to take the oath from the CM-elect?” he suggested.
Speaking on the occasion, government counsel told the court that the president had not taken any action in this regard despite Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s request.
In the case, Advocate Ashtar Ausaf and other lawyers representing Hamza, a PML-N leader and son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, claimed that both the president and Governor Umar Sarfaraz Cheema had committed ‘contempt of court’ by refusing to take an oath from their client. “If anyone believes he is above the law, he is mistaken,” said Advocate Ausaf, who asked the court to order the Senate chairman to administer the oath to Hamza.
