LAHORE – The Lahore High Court (LHC) Office on Tuesday raised objections on a petition seeking Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s removal from office for traveling to Sri Lanka without informing the authorities concerned and returned it to the petitioner.
According to sources, the LHC Office termed the petition as non-maintainable and returned it to petitioner Noshab A Khan advocate. Noshab told Pakistan Today that the LHC deputy registrar (judicial) wrote on the petition-file that it should be filed after the winter vacation, as presently judges’ strength in the court was short and the matter was not of urgent nature, which might be heard in holidays.
The petition was filed by Noshab A Khan advocate submitting that the governor’s mysterious absence from his office for four days was a violation of Article 104 of the constitution, as he could not go on a foreign visit without giving acting charge to the Punjab Assembly speaker. The petitioner argued that Taseer intentionally prevented the speaker from serving as the acting governor for the said period by violating Article 104 of the constitution.
The petitioner alleged that the governor left Lahore on December 5 onboard flight PK-303 for Karachi and flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka by Sri Lankan Airlines flight number VL-189 the same evening. Afterwards, Taseer returned to Karachi from Sri Lanka by flight number VL-183 on December 8 and reached Lahore by flight number PK-306 in the same evening.
Noshab said the governor left the highest constitutional office of the province vacant for four days, which was tantamount to a revolt against basic law of the land. He alleged that Taseer did not want to give acting charge to the speaker deliberately so that the acting governor could not make appointments to key posts on advice of the chief minister, as declared by a recent judgment of LHC Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry.
According to the judgment, the acting governor enjoyed full authority and could make appointments. With this observation, the bench had dismissed a petition challenging appointment of the Punjab Services Tribunal chairman and the Punjab ombudsman made by Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal when he was serving as the acting governor in Taseer’s absence in 2008. The petitioner alleged that notification of the foreign visit was not issued indicating that the governor did not inform the president about his ‘secret’ visit.
Noshab argued that absence of governor made actions of the Punjab government during the period doubtful, as the speaker was running the assembly affairs when he was supposed to be the acting governor.
He requested the court to declare the governor’s visit unconstitutional, illegal and based on malafide and order his removal. The petitioner also requested the court that an order be passed to the federation through the PM’s secretary advising the president to remove the governor.
Not an urgent matter – Petition seeking Taseer’s removal returned with objections
