News
Saturday, July 13, 2013
SC seeks reply on ‘dual-national’ adviser to PM* Court asks AG to seek government response regarding appointment of Shujaat Azeem as adviser to prime minister on aviation
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of a news report, the Supreme Court (SC) has sought a reply from the government about the appointment of a dual nationality holder as adviser to the prime minister on aviation.
Hearing the case about irregularities in the construction of New Benazir Bhutto International Airport (NBBIA), a three-member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, took notice of the appointment of Shujaat Azeem as adviser to the prime minister on aviation.
“Without commenting on the news item, we would like to have reaction of the government of Pakistan through attorney general on the contents of the news, particularly with reference to holding of dual nationality by the Adviser to Prime Minister Mr Azeem,” the court said in its order.
According to the news report, Shujaat Azeem was chief executive officer of Royal Air Service, a ground handling company and before assuming the new assignment, he was reportedly a partner of Chaudhry Munir, the main infrastructure contractor for the NBBIA.
The report also stated that Mr Azeem was a former pilot of the Lebanese Hariri family and had started his career as a PAF pilot and he also holds Canadian citizenship.
According to a military source, Mr Azeem was court-martialled during his stint in the PAF and his not-so-good memories in the air force may be unhelpful for developing the interface with the defence ministry for coordination, the report said.
During the hearing, Advocate Iftikhar Gillani loudly read out the concerned paragraphs from the news in the open court and agreed that under the constitutional provisions adviser was like a minister. The chief justice reminded that no denial had been issued on the report so far and emphasised that the post was of a very sensitive nature and involves strategic security issues.
Additional Attorney General for Pakistan Shah Khawar also admitted that adviser should qualify prerequisites to become a member of parliament because he had to attend the meetings of parliament.
The chief justice asked Shah Khawar to show the quarters concerned the February 13 Supreme Court judgement of throwing out the petition of chief of Tehrik-e-Minhajul Quran Dr Tahirul Qadri, seeking reconstitution of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) because he was also a Canadian national.
Meanwhile, referring to the petition moved by Advocate Asaf Vardag, Shah Khawar reiterated the government’s stand saying the government had justified that the appointment of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Director General Air Marshal (r) Khalid Chaudhry was in accordance with the criteria and he was qualified to become the CAA DG. The court also noted that the JV LTH (Legan, Technical Associates Private Ltd and Habib Construction Ltd), the shareholders and other contractors of the new airport have neither deposited their passports nor filed undertakings not to leave the country until the decision of this case, except with the permission of court.
Asaf Vardaq, a lawyer, had contended in his petition that the New Benazir Bhutto International Airport (NBBIA) was to be ready by December 2011 but the construction was still going on. Because of the delay the cost had already escalated to Rs73 billion and may end up at Rs 90 billion.
Advocate Khawaja Haris Ahmad told the bench on Friday that he would also be submitting documents on behalf of JV Legan. The counsel will also place on record existence of equity of all of them and shall submit that who is enjoying administrative capacity of project amongst them. The court directed CAA Director Legal Obaidur Rehman Abbasi to serve notices to their contractors, enabling them as well to submit their reply before the next date of hearing positively.
“The CAA DG shall collect the notices from the office and shall serve the same upon them to deposit their passports with undertaking that pending decision of the case they will not leave the country without the permission of court.”
The court also ordered that all of them, including contractors, were required to file reaction to the report of Lt Gen (r) Shahid Niaz and audit report, issued by the auditor general of Pakistan on the delay in construction of NBBIA.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk