LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on Saturday filed an application before the Lahore High Court to become a party in the petition of Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz, and against the alleged detention of its MPAs by the opposition.

Hamza Shehbaz had moved the high court on Friday challenging the Punjab Assembly speaker’s act of not convening a session to elect a new chief minister of the province and withdrawing the deputy speaker’s powers.

Advocate Amir Saeed Rawn filed the application on behalf of PML-Q secretary general Kamil Ali Agha, alleging the opposition had held his party MPAs hostage in a hotel and barred them from meeting anyone, even their family members. He said the applicant was a duly registered party with the election commission, but the respondent (Hamza) along with others had been trying to change the loyalty of its members illegally and against the Constitution.

He said the applicant, the PML-Q, was a necessary party in the case, but the petitioner (Hamza) did not make the former a party in the petition pending before the court. He asked the court to allow the application and implead the applicant party (PML-Q) in the pending petition of Hamza Shehbaz.

Hamza challenges transfer of Punjab chief secretary, police chief

Transfers/Postings: Leader of the Opposition Hamza Shehbaz, also a nominee of the joint opposition for the Punjab chief minister’s post, on Saturday moved the Lahore High Court against the transfers of government officers, including the provincial chief secretary and police chief, having been made by interim chief minister Usman Buzdar.

Hamza challenged the transfers through a civil miscellaneous application filed in his already pending main petition against the Punjab Assembly speaker for not holding the chief minister’s election.

The application, filed through Advocate Khalid Ishaq, contended that no provincial cabinet or government existed in the province after the resignation of Mr Buzdar. No transfer and posting of officers, such as the chief secretary and inspector general of police (IGP) of the province, could be made without the consultation of the provincial government.

It argued that once the process of election was set in motion, the matter of transfers/postings had to be halted since such moves had all the trappings of unfair, partial and arbitrary interference in the election process.

“Such a practice of postings and transfers during the election process has always been deprecated and set aside by the honourable courts,” the application adds.

It asked the court to restrain the government from making unlawful transfers and postings of the chief secretary and the IGP during the process for the election of a chief minister.

Both applications would be heard by Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Monday along with the main petition wherein the speaker and the provincial assembly secretary had already been directed to present complete record of the election for the post of the CM.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2022