Foreign tour: Court moved against governor

A petition has been filed in the LHC seeking removal of Governor Salmaan Taseer from his office.

LAHORE: A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court seeking removal of Governor Salmaan Taseer from his office for allegedly proceeding on a four-day foreign tour without informing the president.

The petitioner, Advocate Noshab A Khan, submitted that the governor’s mysterious absence for four days was a material violation of Article 104 of the Constitution which provided that when proceeding abroad he should hand over charge of his office to the speaker of the provincial assembly.

The petitioner claimed that the governor left Lahore on December 5 travelling by flight PK-303 for Karachi and from there the same evening to Colombo by Lankan Airline flight VL-189. He returned to Karachi by VL-183 on December 8 and reached Lahore by PK-306.

The petitioner said the governor caused the highest constitutional office in the province to be unattended for four days.

He prayed that the Federation may be directed through secretary to the prime minister to advise the president to remove the governor.

Published in the Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2010.