LAHORE – A Lahore High Court (LHC) five-member full bench on Tuesday dismissed a petition challenging appointments of the Punjab Services Tribunal chairman and the Punjab ombudsman by Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal when he was serving as the Punjab acting governor in 2008.
The bench headed by LHC Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry observed in a short order, “Acting governor of the province makes appointments on any post, if needed, on the advice of chief minister of the province so such appointments cannot be declared illegal by the court of law”.
The bench also held, “Acting governor enjoys full powers to make appointments on any post while having acting charge of governor”. Earlier, the court had reserved its judgment on the petition around a month ago after hearing detailed arguments of both parties.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab Finance Secretary Aurangzeb Burki had filed the petition challenging the acting governor’s power to make appointments on key posts. Iqbal had appointed Justice (r) Jahangir Arshad as Punjab Services Tribunal chairman and Khalid Mehmood as Punjab ombudsman during Eid holidays in 2008, when he was serving as the Punjab acting governor owing to Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s foreign visit.
The petitioner submitted that the Punjab Assembly speaker had violated rules and appointments made by him were illegal. Burki argued that the Punjab governor went abroad on a three-day personnel visit owing to which the president appointed Iqbal as the acting governor but he misused his powers.
The PPP leader submitted that the acting governor was just supposed to perform day-to-day affairs of the Governor’s House and not make any appointments. The petitioner argued that as far as policy matter and making appointments to key posts was concerned, the acting governor was not authorised to perform such functions.
Burki’s counsel had requested the court to define powers of the governor and acting governor according to articles 101 and 104 of the constitution respectively and declare the appointments made by the acting governor as unconstitutional.
