‘CM should be disqualified’

A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court to declare Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz Sharif disqualified from their public offices A local lawyer, Fakhar Razaq filed the quo-warranto petition through his counsel Khurram Khosa, son of Punjab governor Latif Khosa, alleging that the CM and his son were responsible for the deaths of over 100 cardiac patients. The petition submitted that the Chief Minister held the health ministry portfolio unlawfully while his son Hamza was still supervising the Al-Falah Pharma that supplied the substandard medicines to the Pakistan Institute of Cardiology.
Justice Umar Ata Bandial will resume the hearing of the petition on 1 February. The petitioner pleaded that the chief minister had not proven to be the trust worthy. Khosa stated that the chief minister had appointed himself the health minister despite not having basic knowledge of the sector.
The counsel alleged that the CM was playing with the lives of the masses resulting in the huge numbers of deaths. He alleged that the CM subverted the constitution so that he and his son could not be held guilty of high treason as defined by the Article 6 of the Constitution. He stated that according to the national drug testing laboratory, the Alfagril had been declared defective due to a black spot on the coating of the tablets which caused the deaths of a large number of cardiac patients’ in Punjab. The petitioner requested that the CM and his son be barred from being elected or chosen as Parliament members and restrained from holding the CM’s post.
He further prayed that all the respondents be declared guilty of ‘clinical murder’ of all the patients who lost their lives and of high treason according to the Article 6 of the constitution by placing their names in the exit control list (ECL).
Petition submitted against CM for holding 18 portfolios: An amended writ petition was filed in the Lahore High Court on Tuesday indicating Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif a party by name against holding 18 Punjab ministry portfolios in violation of the constitution of Pakistan.
The amended application was filed by Noshab Khan, after Justice Umar Ata Bandial raised an objection on Monday on his main petition observing that he had not made the Chief Minister party to the case.
The petitioner had been under the impression that the CM enjoyed immunity but the court had allowed him to amend his petition observing that “immunity is a mere question of theory”.
In the fresh application Shahbaz Sahrif, Punjab principal secretary to chief minister and chief secretary have been indicated as respondents.
The petitioner said CM Shahbaz has kept the portfolios of the ministries of Health, Communication and works, S&GAD, Tourism, Local Government, Community Development, Environment, Home, Special Education, Energy, Food, Information, Culture and Youth Affairs, Sports, Population, Social Welfare and Housing in violation of the Punjab Government Rules of Business 1974.
The petitioner pleaded that under the rules of business the chief minister is head of the provincial cabinet and all ministers are supposed to work under his supervision. The petitioner requested the court to ask the CM to relinquish all the portfolios and appoint a health minister in the wake of the recent health crisis in the province. The petitioner pleaded that the CM, as head of the cabinet, could not work in lieu of the ministers. He said the CM was responsible for coordinating the policy matters and chairing the cabinet meetings. The petitioner held the CM responsible for the failure of the health ministry in tackling the problems caused by the spurious medicines’ reaction.
MNA’s petition turned dismissed for a second time: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by MNA Tariq Anees challenging an accountability court judgment that turned down his petition for acquittal in an illegal assets case.
The bench, comprising of Chief Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh heard Anees’ petition against the accountability court. He submitted that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman moved a reference of illegal assets against him in 2002 before the Accountability Court-1, Lahore.
He said that an acquittal application was moved by him in the accountability court contending that the reference and proceedings were illegal as the investigation against the petitioner was not authorised by the NAB. However, the court dismissed the acquittal application on July 9, 2003. The petitioner said that the LHC stayed the matter after he approached it and later closed it after the promulgation of the NRO. However, it was re-opened after the NRO was repealed.
The petitioner prayed the bench to declare the reference against him illegal as the investigation was not authorised by the NAB.
The LHC bench dismissed the petition in favour of the accountability court’s decision.
Sacked pharmacists to be regularised: Lahore High Court Justice Umer Ata Bandial directed the Punjab government on Tuesday to regularise adhoc pharmacists into service. A Punjab government law officer, while submitting the record of the regularised and adhoc pharmacists informed the court that except for 31 pharmacists, the rest had been regularised. The court ordered the Punjab government to regularise the rest of the pharmacists as the law did not allow discrimination among employees.
The counsel for the sacked pharmacists argued in the court that the Chief Minister terminated the petitioners on political grounds. They alleged that the CM had exercised his discretionary powers by regularising hundreds of other health department employees.
He prayed the court to set aside the petitioners’ termination as it was illegal.
The court was told by the government law officer that during the last three years, 11058 contractual employees of the department, ranging from grade 16 to 18 had been regularised on the recommendations of the recruitment committees. Earlier, the court had summoned the records of the terminated ad-hoc pharmacists’ examinations and interviews from the Punjab Public Service Commission as well.