‘President and governor must issue annual reports on Principles of Policy’

LHC overrules registrar’s objection to admit petition.

LAHORE:

Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday overruled an objection raised by the registrar’s office on a constitutional petition asking that the president and the governor be directed to present annual ‘Principles of Policy’ reports in the assemblies, as required by Article 29 of the Constitution.

Justice Sheikh took up the petition as an objection-case and, after hearing initial arguments from the petitioner’s counsel, overruled the objection. He directed the registrar’s office to fix the petition for hearing before a bench.



The registrar’s office had objected that the president and the governor could not be made a party in the case. The petitioner, in response, submitted that the matter related to the enforcement of constitutional provisions and in such cases, immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution did not protect the president or the governor from court proceedings. Petitioner Irfan Mukhtar, through his counsel Azhar Siddique, submitted that under Article 29, the president is required to give a report in Parliament each year of the federation’s achievements in implementing the Principles of Policy, and the governor was required to do the same with regards to the province.

The Principles of Policy are outlined in Articles 31 to 40 of the Constitution, and call for, among other things, the protection of minorities, the promotion of local government, full participation for women in national life, and peaceful ties with foreign countries.



The petitioner said the assemblies had failed to fulfil this obligation and the president and governors had violated Constitutional provisions. He asked the court to direct the president and the governor of the Punjab to prepare and table their Principles of Policy reports in Parliament and in the Punjab Assembly for the years 2008 to 2013.

The petitioner said that as the president and the governor had failed to fulfil their constitutional duties, “appropriate proceedings” should be initiated against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2013.