The PML-N’s fix: How to fire the PPP?

LAHORE: In their Thursday night meeting, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif tried to convince Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to ask the PPP ministers in the Punjab cabinet to step down voluntarily, sources in the PML-N told The Express Tribune.

Gilani met with Shahbaz and other senior leaders of the PML-N in a last-ditch effort to stop the coalition between the PPP and the PML-N in Punjab from falling apart. But the prime minister’s charm did not work this time around. Sources said that the prime minister conveyed the PML-N’s desire to President Asif Ali Zardari, who did not agree to the demand.

Now, the PML-N is said to be in fix over the modalities of expelling the PPP from the Punjab government. The party is considering two options: either de-notify the PPP ministers or dissolve the provincial cabinet.

But sources say that the first option will open a Pandora’s Box for the PML-N in terms of legal complexities because the chief executive of the province is already functioning on a stay order of the Supreme Court.

Sources say that if the chief minister dissolves the cabinet, he will not be able to accommodate PML-Q dissidents, known as the ‘Unification Bloc’, in the new cabinet because Governor Sardar Latif Khosa, who belongs to the PPP, could refuse to administer oath to them.

Even in the second scenario, if the chief minister de-notifies the PPP ministers, Governor Khosa can exercise his powers under sub Article 7 of Article 130 of the Constitution and ask the chief minister to seek a fresh vote of confidence from the assembly.

The PML-N has consulted its legal wizards on how to avoid a legal battle with the PPP. And some of the party leaders have suggested that if the PPP’s ministers refuse to resign, the chief minister should withdraw their departments.

The sources said that the chief minister sought advice from the provincial law department on Friday evening. The law ministry officials proposed dissolution of the provincial cabinet. However, they fear that if the cabinet it dissolved, the PPP ministers could challenge the chief minister’s position in the court.

On the other hand, leader of the opposition in the Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Zaheerud Din Khan has also threatened to move courts against the ‘Unification Bloc’ members, who still technically belong to parent party PML-Q, which is in the opposition in Punjab. Similarly, PPP legislator Raja Riaz has also indicated that he will move the court against the speaker for allocating separate seats to the ‘Unification Bloc’ lawmakers in the assembly.

In February 2009, a Supreme Court bench had disqualified the Sharif brothers on graft charges and barred them from contesting elections or holding public office.

A month later, when the sacked judiciary was restored on the executive order of the prime minister, the Supreme Court issued an interim order to restore the Punjab government on a review petition filed by the PPP-led federal government.

Legal experts are divided over the chief minister’s powers to dissolve the cabinet. AK Dogar said that the Punjab government is not working on an interim order and that the Supreme Court order was final.

Under Article 132 of the Constitution, the chief minister can dissolve the cabinet and de-notify the ministers by sending his advice to the governor under Sub Article 3.

But Advocate Chaudhry Fawad Hussain disagreed with Dogar. He said the Punjab government was functioning on a stay order. However, he added that the stay order has not clipped the chief minister’s powers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2011.