LAHORE: Following orders from the Lahore High Court (LHC), Hamza Shahbaz took oath on Saturday as the 21st chief minister of Punjab.
He was administered the oath by National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on the directives of the LHC as the CM-elect had sought the high court’s intervention on the matter.
Hamza moved the LHC for the third time on Friday as his oath-taking ceremony was deferred on several grounds despite him being elected with a clear majority of 197 votes from the Punjab Assembly on April 16.
Moreover, just hours before the oath-taking ceremony, Punjab Governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema, in a surprise move, “rejected” the resignation of Usman Buzdar saying Constitutional requirements were not fulfilled.
Hamza drove himself to the Governor House, while PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz also accompanied the CM-elect.
Timeline of events from election to oath-taking;
Hamza was elected as the Punjab CM on April 16
On April 17, Punjab Governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema postpones the oath-taking ceremony.
Hamza approached LHC on April 21, which instructed President Arif Alvi to appoint a representative to administer the oath in the absence of the governor.
However, after a delay by the president, Hamza had the court again on April 25.
On April 27, the LHC directed governor Cheema to complete Hamza’s oath-taking process by April 28.
When the president and governor still failed to follow the court’s instructions, Hamza sought the LHC’s intervention for a third time on April 29.
In its ruling, LHC directed the NA speaker to administer the oath to Hamza Shehbaz on April 30.
Hamza Shehbaz Sharif is the eldest son of Shahbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan.
The younger Sharif was born on September 6, 1974, in Lahore, as per the website of the Punjab assembly. He graduated from the Government College, Lahore, and then went on to complete his LLB from the London School of Economics.
Sharif, officially, began his political career after the military takeover of General Pervaiz Musharraf in the late 90s.
In 2008, he contested for the seat of the Punjab assembly, as an independent candidate, as well as for the national assembly. While he lost the provincial election to Salman Rafique, he became a member of the national assembly from 2008 to 2013 and again from 2013 to 2018.
In 2018, he contested and won one national assembly seat and one from Punjab. He later decided to retain his provincial constituency and gave up the national one.
The same year, Hamza Shehbaz was fielded by the opposition as a candidate for chief minister Punjab, but he lost to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate Usman Buzdar and appointed as the leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly. He is the vice president of his party, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N.
In his 2018 election nomination papers, he declared two wives, Mehrunissah Hamza and Rabia Hamza.
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