Plea against appointment of advisers: LHC CJ asks govt lawyer to come with preparation

LAHORE:Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan Wednesday asked the federal government’s lawyer to come with full preparation to assist the court on a petition challenging appointments of "unelected" advisers and special assistants to the prime minister.

Justice Khan took up the petition as objection case and upheld the objection of the registrar’s office, requiring petitioner-lawyer to annex the copies of appointment letters of the advisers and special assistants.

“Points raised by the young lawyer in his petition suggested that federal government is playing on a wet pitch which has grass on it and bowlers are ready to take advantage of these favourable conditions, the CJ observed while using cricket terminology.

The CJ deferred the hearing till end of Eid holidays and asked a deputy attorney general to apprise the court with full preparedness. In his petition, advocate Nadeem Sarwar said Prime minister Imran Khan had appointed 16 un-elected people as advisers and special assistances in violation of the constitutional scheme. He said Adviser on Finance to PM Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh is not an MNA, nor a senator yet he is heading the Ministry of Finance.

“According to Article 92 of the Constitution, only an MNA can perform duties of a federal minister on the prime minister’s recommendation,” said Sarwar. He said Article 90(1) explains that affairs of the federal government could not be run by the unelected persons. He said inclusion of unelected persons in the cabinet showed that the prime minister was unable to run the government.

He added that the Article 2(A) of the constitution states that an unelected person cannot use the state’s powers and an adviser who is a dual national can be a threat to the country’s security. The petitioner requested the court to stop the PM and his unelected cabinet members to stop from working till the final disposal of the instant petition. The advocate had made the PM, his advisers, assistants and Law Minister Farogh Naseem respondents in the case.