• Imran Khan expresses gratitude towards those who came out in support of SC’s verdict.
• Says SC’s decision upheld constitution and the law.
• He will address supporters at 10pm tonight.

Hours after PTI-backed Pervez Elahi was elected as Chief Minister of Punjab and took oath, former prime minister and PTI leader Imran Khan took to Twitter to thank the nation for its support of the Supreme Court’s decision.

“I want to thank the nation for coming out spontaneously last evening in support of the SC decision upholding Constitution & the Law. Tonight I will address our people at 10:00pm giving them our way forward for a sovereign Pakistan,” said Imran Khan on the microblogging website. 

PTI-backed candidate Pervez Elahi took oath as the Chief Minister of Punjab in the wee hours of Wednesday at the Aiwan-e-Sadar after the Supreme Court announced a verdict against the ruling of Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammed Mazari.

The top court declared Mazari’s ruling in the Punjab chief minister’s election “illegal” and ruled that PTI’s candidate Elahi will be the new CM of the province.

SC’s three-member bench — comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and Justice Muneeb Akhtar — had initially ordered Punjab Governor Baligh ur Rehman to administer the oath to Elahi, however, he refused to perform his duties. Consequently, President Arif Alvi administered the oath.

Following Governor Punjab’s refusal, Elahi left for Islamabad late Tuesday night to take oath from Alvi as per the Supreme Court’s order.

According to Geo News, President Alvi had sent a special aircraft to bring Elahi to Islamabad for the oath-taking ceremony.

The order

The Supreme Court, in an 11-page short order, said: “We find that the understanding and implementation of the said short judgment as well as the provisions of Article 63A(1)(b) of the Constitution by the Deputy Speaker, Provincial Assembly of Punjab, Lahore (Respondent No.1) was patently incorrect and erroneous and cannot be sustained.”

The order then declared Elahi as the duly elected chief minister of Punjab as it ruled that he had obtained 186 votes compared to Hamza’s 179.