Fielding law ministers: Chandio not out, Awan not in

Speaki­ng to report­ers, Chandi­o says he hasn’t quit the law minist­ry but tells Senato­r Bukhar­i that he has.

ISLAMABAD:

The country had a law minister in the morning, none in the afternoon, a new one slated for the evening, and the old one back at night.

Leader of the House Nayyer Hussain Bokhari told the Senate on Tuesday that Law Minister Maula Bux Chandio had resigned.

Chandio was supposed to introduce the Constitutional amendment (20th Amendment) Bill, 2012, but Bokhari asked the Senate chairman to defer the presentation due to the minister’s resignation.

Chandio, sitting next to Bokhari, did not confirm or reject the assertion, and the bill was deferred by Chairman Senate Farooq H Naek.

Later, Chandio, who had last year replaced Babar Awan as the law minister, denied reports of his resignation but said he would not hesitate to submit his resignation if asked by the party leadership.

Awan-Zardari meeting

Reports of Awan taking the portfolio back from Chandio surfaced on Tuesday after the Supreme Court temporarily suspended Awan’s licence for ‘ridiculing the court.’

The rumours gained momentum following reports of a meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Awan.

Officials from the Presidency confirmed that a meeting between the two was scheduled but did not verify that it eventually happened.

When asked if Awan had replaced Chandio, the president’s spokesperson, Farhatullah Babar, said “nothing like this has happened so far. Chandio himself has clarified,” the spokesperson said, without giving explicit details of the clarification.

The confusion came amid reports that the government was considering complying with the Supreme Court verdict over the National Reconciliation Ordinance that called for writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Zardari.

If the government writes the letter, the law ministry would be at the centre-stage in drafting and sending it, and, analysts say, Awan’s presence as in-charge of the ministry would have brought him face-to-face with the judiciary again.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2012.