LAHORE : Finally Hamza Shahbaz was sworn in as 21st chief minister of Punjab on Saturday. On the direction of the Lahore High Court (LHC), speaker national assembly , Raja Pervez Ashraf administrated oath from Hamza Shahbaz.
Speaking to media persons after oath taking, Hamza Shahbaz said he as new chief minister will provide relief to the people of the Punjab. Mr Hamza said he will confront challenges left by the previous government in consultation with the coalition partners.
Earlier, LHC had ordered to the speaker national assembly to administer oath from him.
Hamza Shahbaz had won election as chief minister Punjab on April 16, 2022. Governor Punjab , Umar Sarfraz Cheema , had declined to administer oath from him. Denial by the governor Punjab to take oath of the chief minister elect had thrown the province into a serious constitutional crisis. Meanwhile, speaker Punjab assembly, Chaudhary Pervez Elahi, who had lost the election of the chief minister Punjab , had tried to declare the election of the chief minister elect as null and void. The power game resulted in bringing the function of the province to a standstill. Aggrieved Hamza approached to LHC which upheld his point of view and ordered to president , Dr Arif Alvi, to appoint his representative to administer oath from him, but the president deepened the crisis in the province by simply ignoring the court orders. Hamza Shahbaz again took the matter to the LHC, which expressed annoyance over the attitude of the president, and advised to the governor Punjab to administer the oath from Hamza Shahbaz by April 28, 2022. The governor Punjab too did not honour the court orders and instead taking the court orders as per the constitution challenge the orders of the single bench and pleaded that inter court bench may please cancel the earlier orders restraining him to administer the oath from Hamza Shahbaz by April 28, 2022. Finally, to put an end to the on-going pingpong , the court issued a final order on April 29, 2022 directing the national assembly speaker, Raja Pervez Ashraf to administer oath from Hamza Shahbaz as chief minister Punjab on April 30, 2022.
