LAHORE, June 24: Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhood Ahmad ruled on Tuesday that Shahbaz Sharif was a constitutional chief minister of the province and he would retain his Bhakkar seat (PP-48).

In the chair, Rana maintained that he was responding to the point of order raised by PML-Q’s Syeda Bushra Gardazi. She had pointed out in Monday’s session that under the constitution Shahbaz Sharif would have to take a fresh oath as MPA after he was elected unopposed from Rawalpindi (PP-10).

Seeking a ruling from the chair, Ms Gardazi maintained that the Election Commission of Pakistan had issued a notification of Shahbaz Sharif’s election from PP-10 and under the Article 223 section (4) his first seat, PP-48, had fallen vacant and that he had to seek oath afresh.

Rana ruled: “I hold without an iota of doubt that Shahbaz Sharif is a constitutional and competent chief minister to hold his seat from Bhakkar.”

Mashhood said he was a lawyer and had thoroughly studied relevant rules and was of the considered opinion that there was no ambiguity in the case.

In Tuesday’s session Saeed Akbar Nawani, who had vacated his Bhakkar seat for Shahbaz Sharif, was the first to seek the attention of the chair to the “elements busy in searching technical grounds to de-seat Shahbaz Sharif.” He requested Rana Mashhood to first pass the ruling over the issue and then do anything else to dispel the impression that the chair was not taking ‘dictation from any quarter’.

The session on Tuesday began about two hours behind its schedule at 11.55am amid desk thumping and sloganeering like “Go Musharraf go and go PCO judges go.”

On the demand of almost all members, the chair deferred the budget 2008-09 debate and allowed them to give a vent to their anger over the disqualification of PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif to contest the bye-election.

Prime Minister’s son Syed Abdul Qadir Gilani, sworn in on Tuesday, was among the 30 or so legislators who got the opportunity to express their views on the issue.

Speaking on behalf of his party (PPP), Finance Minister Tanvir Ashraf Kaira maintained that it condemned and rejected the decision of Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification. He said his party was with the PML-N at the testing time and would not be part of any conspiracy to roll back the democratic process. Prisons Minister Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor said had the judiciary been free, Bhutto would not have been hanged. He said his party (PML-N) was not against the army but the dictator and not against the judiciary but the PCO judges.

Abdul Qadir Gilani said that we had lost Benazir Bhutto but we would not like to lose Nawaz Sharif now. He said all political forces should join hands to save the country from any further crisis.

PPP’s Sajida Mir was of the view that a conspiracy was being hatched to defame democracy. She said certain elements wanted to pit political parties against each other to gain their nefarious designs.

Khwaja Abdul Islam, Rana Shaukat, Sayed Nazim Husain Shah, Allah Rakha Chaudhry, Ghazala Saad Rafiq, Navid Sajid, Jehanzab Waren, Asif Manzoor Mohil, Samina Aslam, Asif Manzoor, Rana Tajamal, Sanaullah Masti Khail, Rifat Sultanana, Malik Amar Dogar, Shamsa Gohar, Qazi Ahmed Saeed and Ahmed Baloch were among the legislatures who took the floor to condemn the decision.