The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday rejected the plea to hold the election for the slot of Punjab chief minister earlier than scheduled while ordering the Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari to hold the election on April 16 as planned.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and the opposition's nominee for the Punjab CM slot Hamza Shehbaz had filed a plea on Friday in the LHC seeking its help in holding elections for Punjab's new chief minister in a "fair and transparent" manner.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly deputy speaker had moved the court for the restoration of his authority. Mazari had been stripped of his powers in controversial fashion by Speaker Pervez Ellahi, who is the other candidate for the CM slot.

During the hearing, LHC Chief Justice Ameer Bhatti restored the deputy speaker's powers while ordering him to conduct the eletion on the designated date.

In his petition, Hamza Shehbaz stated that the inaction in holding elections for the post was "based on mala fide, with [the] intent to defeat the mandatory constitutional requirements, making political gains by using public office(s) and authority is evidently inchoate; arbitrary; unreasonable; irrational and without jurisdiction".

On Tuesday Chief Justice Bhatti had reserved his verdict after the PML-N and PML-Q/ Punjab Assembly secretariat could not reach a consensus on the neutrality of a person, as ordered by the court, who would be nominated to preside over the House on April 16.

During the hearing on Tuesday, PML-Q leader Pervez Elahi's counsel Barrister Ali Zafar argued that the assembly’s matters could not be challenged in the courts.

He further said that whenever such matters were brought to the courts, they denied entertaining them.

However, after hearing the details arguments the court on Tuesday reserved the verdict and announced it today while ordering to hold the election for CM Punjab slot on April 16.