Shehbaz Sharif accuses Pakistani judiciary of adopting double standards

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday accused the country’s judiciary of having “double standards” after the country’s top court announced Pakistan Muslim League (Q) leader Pervaiz Elahi would be the new Chief Minister of Punjab province.

Shehbaz’s criticism came after Elahi replaced the son of Pakistan PM Hamza Shahbaz. The Pakistani PM said he respected the judiciary and was only talking about “double standards”.

“I ask that there was a time when a former chief justice took suo moto [notices] day and night … when the courts summon then I think we should go with great respect … but if you have to decide, then it should be on the basis of truth and justice. It can’t happen that you treat me one way and treat someone else differently,” Dawn quoted the Pakistani PM saying during a session of the National Assembly (NA).

PML’s Pervaiz Elahi took the oath as the Chief Minister of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province on Wednesday morning during a ceremony held at the President House.

Pakistani President Arif Alvi administered the oath of office to the newly elected Chief Minister after Governor Punjab Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman excused himself from conducting it.

Elahi was declared the Chief Minister by the apex court in response to his petition against Deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly Dost Mazari, who during an election in the assembly last Friday had rejected 10 votes of PML out of 186 total votes received by Elahi against 179 votes by Hamza Shahbaz of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Elahi was a joint candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of former prime minister Imran Khan and the PML.

Mazari announced Shahbaz, son of Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, as the chief minister and said that the 10 votes of the PML were excluded since its Chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain wrote a letter to his party members to vote for Shahbaz.

The court overruled the election of Shahbaz and declared Elahi the winner.

Earlier on April 16, Shahbaz was elected as the new chief minister of Punjab with 197 votes, including 25 dissidents of the PTI. On May 20, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-seated 25 dissident members of the provincial assembly of the PTI for voting Shahbaz in the election against the orders of the party leadership.

Later the ECP allocated five reserved seats to the PTI and announced by-elections on the remaining 20 seats on July 17. The PTI won 15 seats while PML-N got four seats and an independent candidate also won the election. (ANI)