The Lahore High Court’s attempt to determine whether Maryam Nawaz, the prime minister’s daughter and chairperson of the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, was installed in the post by following laid-down criteria according to the law and court judgments brings into focus an important issue.

It again shines a spotlight on the PML-N’s poor record when it comes to making senior appointments in dozens of state-run or semi-government organisations. It is a typical, though highly inappropriate and thoroughly unnecessary, story: when in opposition, a party laments the incumbent rulers’ flouting of the rules, but when in government itself, the party in question does exactly the same thing as its predecessor.

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In the PML-N’s case, the party seems to have surpassed even its woeful predecessor, something few could have believed was possible. For much of its time in office, the PML-N has been pursued by the courts on the appointment front: first, for not making permanent appointments at all and then for not following the rules that the Supreme Court had laid down in the Khawaja Asif case in June 2013.

The problem with nepotistic or unmerited appointments to the offices concerned is twofold: managerial and regulatory.

On the managerial side, when it comes to loss-making public-sector enterprises or even profit-making ones in search of higher revenues, if a senior post is filled on the basis of loyalty to the PML-N or, as is often the case, the prime minister and his inner circle, then it is easy enough to see that the public interest and the PML-N’s party interest may not quite meet — and the appointee may yield to political pressure rather than do what is in the public interest.

On the regulatory front, the problem is even deeper. If top officials in national regulatory bodies are appointed by bypassing or bending the rules, then how can they be expected to zealously guard the public interest in their jobs as regulators? If the PML-N won’t do the right thing, then the courts should keep the pressure on.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2014