The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday said there is no legal bar on the governor directing a sitting chief minister to take a vote of confidence during an ongoing session of the provincial assembly, adding that the executive was bound to comply with such directives.
Last month, Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman de-notified Parvez Elahi as chief minister after he failed to take a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly. The Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) leader subsequently challenged the order, with a five-member bench—headed by Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and comprising Justices Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal, Tariq Saleem Sheikh, Muzamil Akhtar Shabir, and Asim Hafeez—suspending the order on Dec. 23 on the assurance that the Punjab Assembly could not be dissolved while the case was pending. While the order did not require Elahi to take a vote of confidence, it said he was free to do so before the next hearing on Jan. 11 (today).
Resuming the hearing into Elahi’s petition, Justice Sheikh questioned if the matter had been resolved and the chief minister decided to take a vote of confidence. “A decision on chief minister has to be made through a floor test,” he said. To this, Elahi’s lawyer Ali Zafar said that his client had become the chief minister by taking votes in the assembly.
Justice Hafeez then said that a chief minister should have the support of 186 members within 24 hours’ notice. Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Awan informed the court that it was mandatory for a chief minister to take a vote of confidence on the governor’s order. However, Justice Hafeez noted, neither party appeared willing to discuss the number game in the assembly. The AGP stressed that with the passage of over three weeks, the matter had now also gone beyond the debate over the need for a reasonable time to hold voting.
When Zafar contended that the AGP had not provided anything in writing, the AGP said: “No one stopped the chief minister from taking a vote of confidence. Why is there a need to have anything in writing?” At this, Justice Sheikh said the case would be decided on merit and directed Zafar to commence his arguments.
Describing the opposition’s decision to withdraw a no-confidence motion against Elahi as a “political game,” he claimed this was “tantamount to fraud with the Constitution.” However, while agreeing that a governor could ask a chief minister to take a vote of confidence, he said it was the speaker’s prerogative to give a date for the vote. “Even the chief minister cannot ask the speaker to take a vote of confidence,” he said, adding that the chief minister could not be punished for the speaker’s failure.
“Under the Constitution, the governor and speaker are unbiased,” said Justice Hafeez. “Over here the speaker and governor are acting as spokespersons of political parties,” he added. The bench also noted that the governor had the right to determine a date for the vote of confidence during an ongoing session. “If this cannot happen then the chief minister will say that he won’t be taking a vote of confidence as a session is ongoing,” remarked Justice Sheikh, adding that the speaker could have proposed an alternate date.
The hearing was then adjourned until tomorrow (Thursday), when the court would continue hearing arguments of lawyers.