The Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly, Dost Muhammad Mazari rejected 10 votes of the PML-Q in light of letter of the party head Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain who barred his party MPAs from voting for the PTI candidate. Hamza Shahbaz declared of Chief Minister election who got 178 votes and his opponent got 186 votes out of 10 has been rejected.
“As party president of PML-Q, I have directed my provincial members to vote for Hamza Shehbaz,” said the deputy speaker while reading from the letter received from Chaudhry Shujaat.
In line with the ruling of the Supreme Court verdict on Article 63-A related to the defection clause, the deputy speaker said he had rejected the votes of PML-Q lawmakers.
Speaking on the floor of the house, PTI leader Raja Basharat challenged the deputy speaker’s ruling, saying as custodian of the house he could not reject the lawmakers’ votes.
“Chaudhary Shujaat is not authorised to prevent members from voting… he does not have the authority to stop any member,” he said.
However, rejecting the objections of the PTI leader, the deputy speaker said he was performing his duties as per the orders of the Supreme Court.
