News
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Petition against appointment of PM, Punjab CM dismissed* LHC chief justice observes both appointments made according to constitution
Staff Report
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court chief justice on Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging the appointment of caretaker prime minister and Punjab chief minister by declaring it not-maintainable.
The chief justice observed that these appointments were made according to the constitution, as under Article 48 (2) of the constitution the president being head of the state was bound to take the prime minister’s advice. An advocate, Muhammad Irfan Mukhtar, had moved the petition. His counsel, Muhammad Azhar Siddique, stated that after completion of the assemblies’ term, the interim setup at the federal as well as provincial level has taken over control of the government and functioning as “so called justified and lawful caretaker governments”.
Both these governments, he contended, had to be appointed and function strictly in accordance with the constitutional provisions. He submitted that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had appointed caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso after a joint parliamentary committee of the government and the opposition failed to reach a consensus over the matter, while a joint parliamentary committee of the Punjab government and opposition parties in Punjab selected veteran journalist Najam Sethi as Punjab’s caretaker chief minister.
The counsel submitted that Article 224 of the constitution lays down a procedure for the appointment of caretaker setup on federal as well as provincial level. The caretaker prime minister shall be appointed by the president in consultation with the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in the outgoing National Assembly, and a caretaker chief minister shall be appointed by the governor in consultation with the chief minister and the leader of the opposition in the outgoing provincial assembly.
Mukhtar argued that in present scenario the president had neither consulted the former prime minister nor the leader of the opposition in the outgoing National Assembly. Further, the governor of Punjab had also not consulted the former chief minister and the opposition leader in the outgoing provincial assembly. He said that the interim setup has been appointed in violation of the constitutional procedural, and submitted that neither the president nor the Punjab governor had initiated the names of the proposed candidates for the caretaker setup as required in the constitution.
The counsel submitted that the appointment of the caretaker premier by the ECP and that of caretaker chief minister by the committee, as laid down in Article 224A, is violative of Article 224 of the constitution, as no consultation process had been initiated. Mukhtar requested both the appointments be declared as illegal and ultra vires of the constitution. He also requested setting down the principles by interpreting the provisions of article(s) 224 and 224A of the constitution for appointment of caretaker setup by the outgoing National Assembly and provincial assembly.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk