LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday welcomed the decision of Maryam Nawaz of resigning from the chairpersonship of the Prime Minister Youth Loan Programme, terming it a step towards strengthening of democracy.

Hearing a petition against the appointment of Maryam Nawaz as chairperson of the youth loan programme, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah had on November 11 asked the federal government to remove/replace the chairperson by Friday or the court would pass an appropriate order to this effect. Maryam quit the post ‘voluntarily’ the next day.

A deputy attorney general appeared before the court on Friday and presented a copy of the resignation of Maryam Nawaz.

The law officer stated that the resignation of the chairperson would not affect the functioning of the loan programme.

Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah observed that the appointment should have been made through due process of law.

The judge also directed the government to strictly observe law and transparency to appoint, if required, new head of the loan programme as billions of rupees of the taxpayers were involved in the scheme.

With these directions, the judge disposed of the petition filed by Zubair Niazi, a local leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The petitioner had taken a plea that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had misused his prerogative by appointing his own daughter head of the loan scheme.

He said the authority did not follow any law or rules set by the Supreme Court to make the impugned appointment.

Meanwhile, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah dismissed a petition seeking an action against the prime minister for mentioning the name of his daughter as Maryam Nawaz in the notification of the chairperson’s appointment instead of her real name “Maryam Safdar”.

The petitioner, Iqtidar Shah, alleged that the prime minister had defrauded the nation by mentioning ‘wrong’ name of his daughter in the notification.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2014