LAHORE, Oct 28: What is the status of the Punjab cabinet after the resignation of Lt-Gen (retd) Muhammad Safdar as governor? Does it exist or it has ceased to? Will it have to take a fresh oath if the new governor, Lt-Gen (retd) Khalid Maqbool, decides to retain the same team?

Constitutional experts have divergent views on the subject. Some are of the opinion that with the resignation of Gen Safdar, his cabinet has also ceased to exist and it is now for the new governor to form altogether a new cabinet, change some faces or retain the entire team.

A prominent constitutional expert who did not like to be named said in case the ministers of the Safdar cabinet were retained, they would have to be administered a fresh oath by the new governor. “When the chief minister resigns, his team also goes with him. Now that the powers of the chief minister are exercised by the governor, his ministers also stand relieved with the resignation of their boss”, he said.

Dr Khalid Ranjha, law minister in the cabinet of Gen Safdar, said that laws applicable in a parliamentary system in the event of a chief minister resigning from his office could not be applied to the present situation.

In the present system, he said, the governor was heading the cabinet and the office of governor could not remain vacant in any case. He said even if the holder of the office resigned, there would be somebody who would be working in the same position. “A governor never resigns or retires”.

The governor’s office cannot remain vacant at any time”, said Dr Ranjha, who is also a prominent lawyer and a former judge of the Lahore High Court.

Dr Ranjha, who has been sent to Bahawalpur after the firing in a church there, said the resignation of the governor should not be taken as resignation of the cabinet and any minister retained in the new setup would not have to take a fresh oath.

“Parliamentary conventions don’t apply to the present situation”.

Punjab Advocate-General Maqbool Elahi Malik said that under Presidential Orders no 8 and 10, read with other provisions of the PCO, the position of the cabinet ministers would remain unaffected with the resignation of the governor. There was also no need for anyone to take a fresh oath with the appointment of a new governor, he said.

Mr Malik pointed out that ministers in the provincial cabinet had been appointed by the governor with the approval of the chief executive, or the president. Thus, he argued, the departure of one person would not affect the entire structure.

“In the new dispensation, the ministers don’t cease to hold office with the resignation of the governor. They are continuing in their office. They don’t need a fresh oath”, the advocate-general said.

Another prominent constitutional expert said that since the present dispensation was not in accordance with the constitution, the provisions of the 1973 Constitution could not be applied here.

He said the governor was a nominee of a central authority and he could not be equated with the chief minister of a parliamentary system.

“This is merely a technical issue. I don’t think that the cabinet falls with the exit of the governor”.

He said somebody might take the matter to a court of law, but there he would be told that the country was being run under the Provisional Constitutional Order and thus the provisions of the 1973 constitution did not apply to the present situation.

Meanwhile, all arrangements have been completed to administer oath to Gen Khalid Maqbool as the new governor on Monday morning. The LHC chief justice will administer the oath. — Ashraf Mumtaz