KARACHI, Dec 21: The Sindh High Court on Thursday put off, for paucity of time, preliminary hearing of a petition questioning appointment of advisers to the chief minister.

The petition has been moved by Advocate Munir Ahmed Chandio of Thatta through Advocate Abdul Waheed Katpar. It says that there is no provision for appointment of advisers to the CM in the Constitution, which only allows the prime minister to have five advisers vide its Article 93. Naming the seven recently-appointed advisers as respondents, it seeks a complete list of advisers and requests the court to restrain them from performing their functions and refund all expenditure incurred on them.

The petition recalls that despite the clear-cut constitutional position, the chief minister challenged his detractors while inducting seven new advisers on October 31. It came up before a division bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Sajjad Ali Shah but could not be heard due to want of time. The bench allowed the petitioner’s request to re-fix it on December 28.

SC GRANTS LEAVE: The Supreme Court granted Advocate Athar Ali Qazi leave to appeal against a Sindh High Court order. The lawyer said he had challenged axing of trees in the city courts premises but the high court dismissed his petition without comments from the district and session judges of East and South, who were cited as respondents. Advocate Qazi said the petition was filed in public interest as the felling of trees impinged on the right to life. He had also complained that the environmental protection agency and the environmental tribunal were not carrying out their functions properly.