SHC rejects plea challenging deputy PM's post

Petitioner had maintained Constitution of Pakistan does not have any provision for post of Deputy Prime Minister.

The Sindh High Court rejected a petition challenging a notification appointing Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as Deputy Prime Minister on Tuesday, Express News reported.

The petitioner, Moulvi Iqbal Haider, had maintained that the Constitution of Pakistan does not have any provision for the post of Deputy Prime Minister and such a concept is alien to the law of the land.

He submitted that after former prime minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani was disqualified by the Supreme  Court on the contempt of court charge, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party in order to seek support of PML-Q agreed to make Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi deputy prime minister and also gave 15 cabinet slots to the party as a “political bribe.”

This had resulted in a huge cabinet of 65 federal ministers, state ministers, advisors, etc and in order to secure support for Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the federal government has violated the order of the Supreme Court which had fixed the number of advisors to five, maintained the petitioner.

He had requested the court to declare the notification of appointment of a deputy prime minister as being unconstitutional, illegal and void and also to declare that advisers beyond the strength of five are illegal.