PPP to challenge SHC verdict on advisers, assistants

Party says the apex court should either annul the high court’s verdict that declares appointment of CM’s aides illegal or order its implementation across the country

The Pakistan People’s Party, the ruling party in Sindh, announced on Monday that it would challenge the high court’s verdict wherein it had held that the appointment of chief minister’s advisers and special assistants was illegal and they could not hold ministerial portfolios.

“The PPP will not accept discriminatory treatment being meted out to its leaders and public representatives and will legally contest the Sindh High Court’s verdict,” PPP central information secretary Chaudhry Maznoor Ahmed told reporters at the press club.

He said the apex court should either annul the high court’s verdict or order its implementation across the country.

“This is necessary to nullify the impression that the PPP has always been subjected to unfair treatment by the courts,” he added.

Ahmed said after the recent judgement of the SHC, there was no legal reason for the federal government to have so many state ministers, advisers, and special assistants who are not elected representatives.

He added that one such brazen example was of the new Sindh governor, who before taking over his new post, was enjoying the status of a state minister for being the chairman of the privatisation commission.   

The PPP information secretary said the judiciary was known for its verdicts against the PPP as the founder of the party too had been handed down the death penalty by a court.

He said former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, who was himself deposed by a dictator, handed down verdicts against the PPP government almost every day after his reinstatement.

He said the PPP's political opponents had never faced hostile court judgements despite the cases related to the petition of Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan and the attack on the Supreme Court in the past.

The PPP office-bearer said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the ruling party in the Centre, was still continuing with a threatening approach towards the apex judiciary as per its practice in the past. “The PPP is still hopeful that it will be delivered justice,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Moula Bakhsh Chandio, who has recently stepped down as the CM’s information adviser over court orders, said the SHC’s verdict clearly showed that the Constitution was not being uniformly implemented in all parts of the country.  

“Why has the judiciary not allowed the Sindh chief minister to have advisers and special assistants, when there is no such ban in other provinces and the Centre?” he asked.

He said the Constitution should be implemented on a uniform basis in all provinces and in the Centre.

Chandio added that in case it was established that all provinces were not being treated on an equal basis as the recent court decision had shown, the people of Pakistan would lose faith in the Constitution and they would be left with no lawful recourse to have their grievances addressed.

He said it was completely unacceptable that advisers and special assistants were not allowed in Sindh, while in the Centre the most important position in the federal government after the prime minister was being held by an adviser. He noted that a special assistant was also available to the prime minister on foreign affairs.

Chandio said after stepping down from the post of an adviser, he would continue to serve the PPP as an ordinary activist.