BHC declares appointment of CM coordinators void

Directs provincial government to recover all official belongings from all 32 coordinators and two spokespersons

QUETTA:

The Balochistan High Court (BHC) has declared the appointment of 32 coordinators and two spokespersons to Chief Minister Balochistan illegal, null and void.

A division bench of the BHC comprising Chief Justice, Naeem Akhtar Afghan, and Justice Amir Rana passed this order on a constitutional petition here Wednesday.

The court directed the provincial government to recover all official belongings from all 32 coordinators and two spokespersons.

Senior lawyer, Sadiq Khilji Advocate, and others had challenged the appointment of coordinators and two spokespersons to the CM Balochistan in the BHC.

Balochsitan government had appointed two spokespersons, Farah Azeem Shah and Babar Yousafzai.

The court had earlier reserved the judgment and announced it on Wednesday in the presence of lawyers of the coordinators.

The court directs all coordinators to return official belongings forthwith.

The court directed the sacked coordinators and spokespersons to submit all official belongings to the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD).

All 32 coordinators and spokespersons should return all official belongings to the government, the court ordered. In his petition, Khilji argued that the province was facing a serious financial crisis and could not afford such large number of coordinators as well as two spokespersons at the same time.

Despite a serious financial crisis, Chief Minister Balochistan had appointed 32 coordinators and two spokespersons in order to please all the allied parties in his government.

The Balochistan government has been complaining about the worst financial crisis and a few months back the CM Bizenjo had issued a statement that the provincial government was not in a position to pay the salaries of the government employees due to lack of funds.

The province has always blamed federal government for not releasing the funds, causing a severe financial crisis in the province.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2023.