High office: Permanent governor appointment by May 7, LHC assured

Justice Mansoor says cabinet division secretary would be summoned in court if govt fails to make appointment

LAHORE:

Lahore High Court was on Tuesday assured by the federal government that a permanent appointment to the office of the Punjab governor would be made by May 7th.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that the cabinet division secretary would be summoned in the court if the government failed to make an appointment by that date. He deferred till May 11 the hearing in the petition seeking a permanent appointment to the governor’s office. Advocate Munir Ahmad, the petitioner, had also sought disqualification of Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal, who is holding a care taker appointment to the office since Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar’s resignation, from his provincial assembly membership.

Petitioner’s counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique had submitted that a caretaker appointment to the office of the governor was allowed in the Constitution of Pakistan only if the governor was temporarily not available for official duties. He had said that in a situation where the office was permanently vacant (since Sarwar’s resignation) the government was required to make a permanent appointment to the office.

The petition later filed an application seeking Iqbal’s disqualification from his assembly membership as well. He submitted that after taking charge of the office of the governor on an acting basis, Iqbal was no longer eligible to be a member of the Provincial Assembly under Article 260 of the Constitution (which defines  ‘Service of Pakistan’ as any service rendered or post/ office held in connection with the affairs of the federation or of a province.

The category of Provincial Assembly speaker is amongst the ones excluded from the Service of Pakistan).

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2015.