Political Tensions Persist.

After much delay and speculation, the Supreme Court late on Tuesday declared Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as the duly elected chief minister of Punjab for securing 186 votes against the 179 of his opponent, PML-N's Hamza Shehbaz. The short order authored by the Chief Justice of Pakistan set aside the July 22 ruling of Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari and declared it void, without lawful authority and of no legal effect.

Following this much-awaited decision, President Dr Arif Alvi administered the oath to Chaudhry Pervez Elahi in Islamabad during the early hours of Wednesday morning. The proceedings carried over to the following day as Mr Elahi had to rush from Lahore to the federal capital after Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman refused to carry out the job. The order not only declared the ruling of Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Mohammad Mazari as void but also added that Hamza Shehbaz was not a duly elected CM and that all of the acts, deeds and things that took place under his tenure had no lawful authority.

While the judicial saga may have come to a close for now, political tensions between the PDM and PTI coalition continue to be on the rise. Despite all that has taken place over the past couple of weeks, there appears to be no appetite for introspection and reaching across the aisle to find some kind of common ground so that the entire country is not paralysed as a result...

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