Govt yet to lay down criteria for SAPMs appointment

SC rejects constitutional petition against appointment of Zulfiqar Bukhari as SAPM in December 2018

ISLAMABAD:

Despite the Supreme Court’s observations, the federal government has yet to carry out legislation for laying down the criteria regarding the appointment of special assistants to the prime minister (SAPMs).

 "We would like to observe that the parliament may at an appropriate time consider laying down some criteria, minimum standards, educational qualifications, fields of expertise and legal experience for appointment as Special Assistant to Prime Minister in order to ensure that the exercise of discretion by the prime minister in this regard is properly structured, streamlined, circumscribed and systemized," said a 20-page judgment authored by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, while rejecting a constitutional petition against the appointment of Zulfiqar Bukhari as SAPM in December 2018.

 Now, the debate has again started to set the criteria about the qualification of SAPMs after the issuance of details on their dual nationalities by the federal government on Saturday.

 The appointments of SAPMs has also been challenged in superior courts and the matter is still pending.

 Two years ago, the apex court in Zulfi Bukhari appointment case held that in the absence of a settled criteria, standards and benchmarks, it was not possible to test the qualifications, antecedents and experience of Bukhari against such standards.

 "Therefore we consider it appropriate to defer such judgment to the judgment and discretion of prime minister in the hope that such discretion has been and shall in future be exercised in a fair, transparent and unbiased manner in the interest of better and more efficient functioning of the affairs of the government," said the judgment.

 The court also noted that the constitution does not envisage unstructured, uncontrolled and arbitrary discretion being conferred on any state functionary or public officer holder.

 The judgment observed that the SAPM is neither a parliamentarian nor in "service of Pakistan"

 These two conditions contain some restrictions on dual nationals to hold certain positions.

 The court noted that the qualification of a special assistant was neither mentioned in the constitution nor in the rules of business, adding that it appeared to have been left on the discretion of the premier on the basis of subjective assessment about the ability of a person to perform the functions that the prime minister required him to perform for such appointment.

 "We are fully cognizant of the fact that the scheme of the constitution envisages a parliamentary democracy in which business of the government is run by the prime minister and cabinet members who are federal ministers and ministers of state who must be elected representatives of the people of Pakistan," Justice Ahsan in his order said.

 The court also observed that SAPM Zulfi Bukhari was acting in his advisory capacity to the premier and had been exercising only those powers which were granted to him in term of Entry 27 of the Rules of Business 1973 relating to the affairs of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Division.

 About the question regarding the exercise of quo warranto power, the judgment noted that the apex court extended writ of quo warranto whenever it found that any person held any government position on the basis of political affiliation or conducted an exercise to reward cronies at the expense of public money.