Imran Khan warns Pakistan not far from ‘Sri Lanka moment’

Former Prime Minister of Pakistan and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday warned that Pakistan is not far from a "Sri Lanka moment" when the public will pour out into the streets for "Haqeeqi Azadi" against the 'mafia' led by Asif Zardari and the Sharif family.

The former PM, taking to Twitter, lamented that the "mafia" led by Asif Zardari and the Sharif family has brought the country to its knees politically and economically in just over three months.

He added that they did it simply to save their illegally accumulated wealth amassed over 30 years of plundering Pakistan. "My question is: how long will state institutions continue to allow this?"

Khan said that he could say with certainty after his interaction with the nation and their response to his call for Haqeeqi Azadi that the people of Pakistan have had enough and will not allow these mafias to continue their loot and plunder.

"We are not far from Sri Lanka moment when our public pours out into streets," he said.

The message from the PTI chairman came as the Supreme Court is hearing a petition from Parvez Elahi against a ruling of the deputy speaker that rejected 10 votes of PML-Q for violating party head Chaudhry Shujaat's directive, reports Pakistan Observer.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial today summoned Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly after PTI and PML-Q filed petitions against the victory of Hamza Shahbaz during the election for CM Punjab.

During the hearing, the chief justice remarked that there is nothing in their decision that the deputy speaker mentioned during the assembly proceedings.

"We are here to learn and will summon the deputy speaker so that he could identify the paragraph from the top court's decision which he used to decide on the matter," he said.

The Pakistan supreme court has summoned Dost Muhammad Mazari at on Sunday for citing Article 63A of the Constitution and not counting the votes of defecting lawmakers as well as electing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hamza Shahbaz as Punjab Chief Minister, reports NDTV.

This comes after the former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) filed a petition against Dost Muhammad Mazari's ruling to reject 10 PML-Q votes in Punjab Chief Minister's elections, media reports said.

Leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) reached the Supreme Court registry in Lahore late at night and submitted a petition against Punjab's Chief Ministerial election.

The petition stated that the ruling violated the top court's decision with regard to the interpretation of Article 63A of the constitution and asked the court to annul the ruling.

Earlier, PML-N's Shahbaz was re-elected as the chief minister of Punjab after the votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were rejected by the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker.

On Friday, Pervaiz Elahi – joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q – received 186 votes, while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes. However, 10 votes of PML-Q were cancelled by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, hence taking the figure to 176.

Following the counting of votes, the deputy speaker, citing Article 63A of the Constitution, rejected ten votes cast by the PML-Q members. As a result, Hamza Shahbaz received 179 votes, while Pervaiz Elahi managed to bag 176 votes.

Hamza Shehbaz took oath as Punjab Chief Minister on Saturday.

This is the second time that Hamza Shehbaz defeated Pervaiz Elahi in the contest for the Punjab Chief Minister. Back in April, his oath-taking had been delayed for days with the then-governor, Omar Sarfaraz Cheema, refusing to administer the oath to him.