PESHAWAR: A lawyer on Tuesday challenged the appointment of Justice (r) Dost Mohammad Khan as caretaker chief minister in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for “violating the Constitution”.
Justice (r) Dost Mohammad Khan was appointed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after contemplating on a list of four candidates shortlisted by the previous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government and opposition following the parliamentary committee’s incompetence in declaring a single candidate.
In the petition, senior lawyer Syed Azizuddin has stated that as per Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution, an elected person who has served Pakistan or any statuary body shall be disqualified unless the appointment is made two years after the end of his/her service’s tenure and pointed out that the interim chief executive retired on March 20, 2018, which makes him unqualified for the job.
Azizuddin further claimed that Dost Mohammad’s appointment as interim CM is against National Judicial Policy 2009, according to which a Supreme Court (SC) judge is not allowed to accept a post below his rank.
“The judge who was supposed to work for the supremacy of the Constitution is violating it,” stated the petitioner.
Azizuddin, besides praying to the court to restrain Justice Dost from assuming the post of caretaker chief minister until a verdict is given, also seeks the court’s declaration of the retired judge’s appointment as invalid.
However, that plea was not made on time and the caretaker chief minister took oath of the office earlier in the day.
The respondents in the petition are the KP government through the provincial chief secretary, KP governor, Federation of Pakistan through the interior secretary and Justice (r) Tariq.