The numbers were stacked against him, yet Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s son Hamza Shehbaz was declared winner of the run-off vote to elect the chief minister. While Hamza got 179 votes, his rival and opposition candidate Chaudhry Pervez Elahi bagged 186. But the deputy speaker rejected 10 votes of the PML-Q citing a letter from party head Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who barred his party lawmakers from voting for Elahi. Hussain switched sides at the last minute after PPP co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari managed to prevail over him. Amid uproar over the shock poll outcome, the deputy speaker said he was following the Supreme Court’s verdict on Article 63-A which relates to defection. Elahi questioned that saying only the parliamentary party leader, not the party chief, can instruct lawmakers who to vote for. Former PM Imran Khan said he was shocked by what had happened in the assembly. “We knew that he (Zardari) had to play a game. For 30 years, he has ruined the country. He buys democracy through black money.” The election has now been challenged in Supreme Court.
