Elahi takes oath as chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab province
Pervaiz Elahi of Pakistan Muslim League (PML) took the oath as the chief minister of Pakistan's eastern Punjab province on Wednesday morning during a ceremony held at the President House.
Pakistani President Arif Alvi administered the oath of the office to the newly elected chief minister after Governor Punjab Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman excused from conducting it, the local media reported.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday night ordered the governor to administer an oath for Elahi at 11:30pm local time on the same night, adding that the president would have to conduct it if the governor failed to manage it.
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Elahi was declared the chief minister by the apex court in response to his petition against Deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly Dost Mazari, who during an election in the assembly last Friday had rejected 10 votes of PML out of 186 total votes received by Elahi against 179 votes by Hamza Shahbaz of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Elahi was a joint candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of former prime minister Imran Khan and the PML. Mazari announced Shahbaz, son of Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, as the chief minister and said that the 10 votes of the PML were excluded since its Chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain wrote a letter to his party members to vote for Shahbaz.
The court overruled the election of Shahbaz and declared Elahi the winner.
