LAHORE- Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, the newly elected chief minister of Punjab, reaffirmed his oath for the position on Saturday. He had just won a tense runoff election for the position.
At a ceremony attended by prominent party figures like Ahsan Iqbal and Rana Mashood as well as PPP representatives, Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman gave the oath to the PML-N leader.
Dost Muhammad Mazari, the deputy speaker of the Punjab Assembly, kept PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz as chief minister of Punjab despite rejecting 10 votes cast by PML-Q legislators in support of Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Friday.
Mazari said that he disapproved of these votes in light of a letter from PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, in which he claimed to have instructed his party's lawmakers to support Hamza Shahbaz.
Parvez received 186 votes, while Hamza received 179. Ten votes cast in Parvez's favour were, however, disregarded.
Both Parvez, backed by PTI, and incumbent CM Hamza were fighting for the job.
After the PTI MPAs were removed from their seats for failing to abide by party rules, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) held elections for 20 provincial seats that had become empty.
In the by-elections, PTI won 15 seats, taking the lead in the numbers game heading into the CM election. PML-N won four seats, and an independent candidate won one district.
In the provincial assembly, the PTI and PML-Q have a combined 188 seats, while the alliance led by the PML-N has 179.
To ensure a peaceful runoff election, the law enforcement agencies set up impregnable plans within and outside the Punjab Assembly.
Imran Khan, the leader of the PTI, alleged that in an effort to sway PTI Assembly members to alter their allegiances, the Sharif-led coalition government bought their votes.
The resolute lawmaker claimed on Twitter that today's events in Lahore were a rerun of the horse-trading incident that occurred in Sindh House in Islamabad. He said that MPs from his party were being given up to Rs. 500 million each to switch allegiances.
Khan claimed that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was responsible for the incident, claiming that he receives NRO for his corruption and hires people with money he has stolen.
The PTI leader referred to horse trade as a "assault on democracy" and the social fabric. He claimed that if the Supreme Court had acted and permanently blacklisted these traitors, it would have served as a deterrent.
Rana Sanaullah, the interior minister and leader of the PML-N, asserted that 50 PTI MPAs could support Hamza in the runoff election. But it didn't take place.
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