G-B court puts off chief minister’s election

Police seal assembly building; govt removes IG Khattak

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Appellate Court (SAC) of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) on Wednesday put off the election for the new chief minister, a day after the Chief Court disqualified Khalid Khurshid from holding the top office in the region for possessing a fake degree.

Earlier in the day, the police sealed the G-B Assembly after evacuating lawmakers and journalists from the premises. Also the federal government removed police chief Dar Ali Khan Khattak, replacing him with Afzal Mahmood Butt.

The G-B Assembly was preparing for voting for a new chief minister on Wednesday.

However, Chief Judge Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan ordered that the election be adjourned, citing various procedural irregularities.

According to a statement issued by the SAC, Justice Shamim, while presiding over a hearing, ordered G-B Speaker Nazir Ahmed to present a new election schedule in the court on Thursday (today) with at least three days given for the election.

Justice Shamim questioned as to why the election schedule for Wednesday was announced in such a hurry, especially when there was a no-confidence motion submitted against the chief minister, the statement added.

Citing the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly Rule (3) of Procedure and Conduct of Business, 2017, the court said it was necessary to advertise the election schedule through television, newspapers, radio and gazette publications.

As per the now-defunct election schedule, the speaker had ordered the submission of nomination papers for the office of the chief minister by Wednesday noon, while voting in the house was set for 3pm.

There were four candidates, who had filed the nominations. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to which the former chief minister Khalid Khurshid belongs to, had nominated Raja Azam as its candidate.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had fielded Amjad Advocate, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) nominated Engineer Anwar and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) had put Rehmat Khaliq in the fray.

However, before any proceedings, a heavy contingent of police entered the assembly building and sealed it. The police contingent then surrounded the premises and barred lawmakers from entering.

Later, Inspector General (IG) of Police Khattak was ordered to report to the Establishment Division.

According to a notification, Afzal Mahmood Butt, a Grade-20 officer in Punjab, was posted as the new IG of G-B.

On Tuesday, a three-judge bench of the G-B Chief Court, comprising Justice Malik Inayatur Rehman, Justice Johar Ali and Justice Mushtaq Muhammad, disqualified Khurshid for five years over his fake degree.

Ghulam Shahzad Agha, a member of the G-B Assembly from the PPP, had challenged Khurshid’s law degree, contending that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had declared it fake.

Before the Chief Court’s decision on Tuesday, a no-confidence motion was also submitted against Khurshid in the G-B Assembly by nine lawmakers from the opposition parties.

Reacting to the police action at the G-B Assembly, former chief minister Khurshid alleged that the election was being delayed because the PTI had a “clear majority” and would vote for the party’s candidate.

He alleged that after delaying the election, efforts would be made to “break [away]” the PTI lawmakers. He claimed that if that failed, lawmakers, including him, would then be arrested so that the party loses the majority.

PTI’s Farrukh Habib said that “political engineering” was under way in G-B. He added that the chief minister’s election had been postponed in the light of the PTI’s “clear victory”, adding that such steps were increasing “instability”.

PTI Central Information Secretary Raoof Hassan stated that the election should be held without any delay.

“The opposition is trying to delay the convening of session to play their dirty game of buying and selling. [This is] disgusting and deplorable,” he said.

(WITH INPUT FROM NEWS DESK)