LAHORE, Oct 5: Justice Mian Hamid Farooq of the Lahore High Court on Thursday sought detail of the expenditures which the Punjab government was incurring on its advisers in the form of their salaries, allowances and other fringe benefits.

The court adjourned till Oct 9 the constitutional writ petition which called into question the appointment of advisers to the Punjab government and the chief minister with the contention that they were nominated in violation of the Constitution.

Maulana Malik Shah Mohammad had primarily challenged through the writ petition the appointment of Mian Mohammad Munir as an adviser on the plea that he was convicted by the Supreme Court along with Tariq Aziz, Akhtar Rasool and six others under the Contempt of Court Ordinance for storming the apex court.

The court subsequently restrained Mian Munir and Akhtar Rasool from working as advisers, directing the Punjab chief secretary to withdraw all benefits and other perks attached to their respective offices. The court also served notices on the other 39 advisers (six of whom are advisers to the chief minister), asking them under what legal authority they were holding the office.

The court required the Punjab law officer to submit as to whether the summons on all the advisers, directing them to appear in person, had been served. The court decided to adjourn the hearing on the request of an assistant advocate-general who submitted that the advocate-general wanted to address the court on the ‘important’ constitutional provision.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that Article 93 of the 1973 Constitution provided that the president alone was competent to appoint five advisers in consultation with the prime minister. The constitution did not stipulate the appointment of advisers either to a provincial government or the chief minister.

The court deferred the proceedings when advocate Mohammad Alamgir, the counsel for adviser Saba Sadiq, was advancing arguments. The court has already sought an expert opinion in the case from S M Zafar, Aitzaz Ahsan, Dr Khalid Ranjha, Hamid Khan and a few other noted jurists.

The Punjab government stated that advisers were appointed by the chief minister under Rule 6(A) of the Rules of Business, 1974, and the appointments did not suffer from legal infirmity. The government has also challenged the LHC decision under which the court had restrained the government from appointing more advisers. —Correspondent