Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday challenged in the Supreme Court the appointment of Mohsin Naqvi as the caretaker chief minister of Punjab.
In a petition moved by PTI General Secretary Asad Umar, the party prayed to the apex court to bar Naqvi from continue to work as the interim chief minister. It maintained that he had no political administrative, and legal experience in ensuring the rule of law, the working of governments, bureaucracy, the requirements of law and/or the Constitution and was thus unsuitable for the role.
“It is also stated that the caretaker chief minister ought to possess certain but necessary intellectual and relative experience as well as characteristics which is to ensure that the appointed caretaker chief minister is better equipped with expertise required for the office of the chief minister. This is unfortunately not the case herein. Equal or better-suited candidates were available and have not been considered consciously. An individual without any experience of political, constitutional, bureaucratic set-ups has been selected/appointed for this position for reasons which are not available nor discernible. The ‘decision’ has not been made available, as none is present in writing, though a conclusion thereof has been communicated vide notification No F.2(5)/2023-Cord- dated 22.01.2023 (‘Impugned Notification’) by the respondent Commission. The same is patently unlawful and smacks of sheer arbitrariness,” it said.
“How the issue of his suitability has been decided so as to result in an ‘unanimous’ communication of the respondent commission appointing him as the caretaker chief minister, is not manifest and in negation to the mandate of the Constitution,” it added.
In the same petition, the PTI also challenged the appointments of Raja Riaz as the Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). It has made the federal government, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Riaz, the governments of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the ECP, and Naqvi respondents in the case.
The petition is seeking the ECP to be declared ‘en masse’ biased and in violation of the code of conduct prescribed under Article 209 of the Constitution, claiming the watchdog abused constitutional and statutory powers. It also claims the appointments of Babar Hassan Bharwana and Justice (retd.) Ikramullah Khan as ECP members is in violation of the Constitution, and should be struck down.
In a separate petition, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has also filed a plea challenging Naqvi’s appointment as the chief minister. The petition argues Naqvi was appointed on the basis of his links with the ruling coalition and accuses the caretaker chief minister of playing a role in the ouster of the PTI from government last year. It also argues that Naqvi’s appointment “defeats the constitutional mandate” as “fair and transparent elections rested upon [an] impartial, unbiased and honest caretaker setup.”
Neither of the petitions filed by the PTI and Rashid have been approved for hearing yet.