Awan, Sanaullah trade charges

ISLAMABAD: Law and Justice minister Babar Awan has said that Punjab’s administrators are working unlawfully and they should be removed from their offices.

“The Punjab government, under the Local Government Ordinance 2001, was bound to hold elections within 180 days of lapse of the local bodies’ tenure,” Awan told journalists on Sunday.

He said that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif should be a part of the lower house of the parliament as his “exclusive NRO” (known as the Jeddah Deal), when he was sent to Saudi Arabia by the then army chief Pervez Musharraf in 1999, would lapse by December, this year.

“Sharif, get your horse ready as the ground for political battle is open now,” the law minister said addressing the PML-N chief.

Scotching rumours of a regime change or mid-term elections, the law minister also said that a “change” was inevitable in the country “but only in 2013.” Awan said that it was only the Punjab government where the cabinet was incomplete. Punjab, comprising more than 50 per cent population of the country, has turned into a “police” state now, he said.

The law minister said that the government was complying with all of Supreme Court’s orders and that appointments in the superior courts would be made after the apex court’s ruling in the 18th amendment case.

Meanwhile, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah called Babar Awan’s allegations “baseless”.  Talking to a private TV channel, he said that the appointment of the administrators was made with the assembly’s approval.

He claimed that Awan could not respond to the charges of taking Rs30 million in bribes in the name of judges and was now objecting to the appointment of administrators. “He (Awan) just wants to hide his corruption and the incompetence of the government,” Sanaullah said.

He added that the law minister should mind that only the courts could decide whether the appointment of administrators was constitutional or not. (WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM ONLINE)

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2010.