The ceremony took place at the Governor House in Lahore, and after the oath-taking, chants of 'Aik Zardari sab pe bhaari' (one Zardari outweighs them all) were heard throughout the audience.
After the ceremony, Hamza in a tweet thanked God for making his party 'successful once again'. In addition to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), he also extended a thank you to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chair Asif Zardari, and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
https://twitter.com/HamzaSS/status/1550741017720233985
This marks the second time Hamza has been elected as the chief minister since April 2022, and also makes it the second time he has defeated PML-Q leader Parvez Elahi for the position.
The first defeat was on April 16, following which the then-governor of Punjab delayed his oath-taking for almost two weeks. The oath was finally administered by the National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on April 30, as per directives of the Lahore High Court.
Yesterday's election made it the second time Hamza defeated Parvez Elahi.
While the PTI/PML-Q alliance had a clear majority, the coalition government was making last ditch efforts to turn the tides in their favor, and Zardari had been visiting Shujaat Hussain.
Following the counting of votes, Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari read a letter from Shujaat out loud. “As party head of PML-Q, I have issued directions to all my provincial members to cast their votes in favour of Hamza Shehbaz Sharif,” Mazari quoted Shujaat as saying.
Mazari ruled that “as per this letter, according to the ruling of the Supreme Court, all the 10 votes cast by PML-Q lawmakers have been rejected”.
According to the deputy speaker, Hamza secured 179 votes whereas Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate and PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi got 176 votes.