| Administers Oath to Four new members of PM Shehbaz’s Cabinet
| PML-Q’S Chaudhry Salik appointed CPEC Authority Chief
From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti on Friday directed President Dr Arif Alvi to depute someone to administer the oath Punjab chief minister-elec Hamza Shahbaz.
The LHC’s office will submit the order before the presidential office and the president will depute a person for the said purpose.
Earlier in the day, Chief Justice Bhatti had observed that the AGP had till 2pm Friday to communicate with governor Cheema regarding his duty to draft an explanation to the president, “otherwise the court will pass its order.”
The LHC CJ’s order came during the hearing of a petition filed by Hamza Shahbaz against Punjab Governor Omar Sarfaraz Cheema delaying administering the oath of office to him. The high court’s order came after two short intervals during Friday’s proceedings.
During the day’s proceedings the Advocate General of Punjab (AGP) Ahmad Awais argued that the governor was not answerable to the court, instead he would write a letter to the president of Pakistan describing the causes of delay in the oath administration.
CJ Bhatti had stated earlier in the day that a ‘final order’ will be passed if the provincial governor failed to inform the president of his reason for delaying the oath administration.
AGP Awais argued that the “governor has immunity and is not bound to give his explanation before the court”, prompting a response from CJ Bhatti, who said that “he has the great honour of the governor’s slot; however, it is his obligation to respect others if he demands respect.”
The chief justice clarified his stance stating that he was not impeding on the immunity of the governor, instead accusing him of violating the Constitution. “If the governor will not explain himself then who will answer to the constitutional crises that prevails in the province?” CJ Bhatti questioned.
AGP Awais defended the governor, saying that he was functioning within the purview of the law. To this CJ Bhatti questioned, “Where he is functioning there is no cabinet; the province is at a standstill. If he is working, then why has the matter of administering the oath not been resolved?”
The AGP stated that the governor may write to the president in a few days to elaborate his failure to administer the oath.
Meanwhile, President Dr Arif Alvi administered oath to three federal ministers and one minister of state for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet at the Aiwan-i-Sadr on Friday, the first time the president led the ceremony involving members of the new government.
The president had previously “complained of discomfort” just a day before then prime minister-elect Shehbaz was to be sworn in as head of government. Shehbaz was then administered the oath of office by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani.
On Tuesday, 33 lawmakers were inducted in the new premier’s cabinet after they were sworn in by Sanjrani in the absence of the president, who had refused to administer the oath to the lawmakers, reports said, adding that a Cabinet Division notification issued at the time carried the names of 26 federal ministers and two ministers of state.
In Friday’s oath-taking ceremony, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s (PML-Q) Chaudhry Salik Hussain — son of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain — Balochistan National Party-Mengal’s (BNP-M) Agha Hassan Baloch and PML-N’s Javed Latif took were sworn in as federal ministers.
After the three were sworn in a federal ministers, BNP-M’s Hashim Notezai was administered the oath of office and inducted into the cabinet as a minister of state.
PML-Q MNA Chaudhry Salik Hussain appointed as China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority chairman. Chaudhry Salik Hussain has replaced Khalid Mansoor as CPEC authority chief.
It is pertinent to mention here that Chaudhry Salik Hussain is the son of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, President of PMLQ, a former allied party of the Imran Khan government.
