LAHORE: “Being a senior lawyer I know that a sub judice matter should not be commented upon,” Rafique Rajwana told reporters after taking the oath as 36th governor of Punjab on Sunday.

He was asked to comment as to what could be the possible verdict of the Election Tribunal in the matter of NA-122. “Have you read the law?” the governor said.

He exercised caution while replying to a query about the inordinate delay in the Provincial Financial Commission Award.

“On the one hand the media is saying that as a governor I have no powers, on the other it is insisting that I should go beyond my constitutional limits on certain issues.”

Take a look: Rafique Rajwana appointed Punjab governor

Asked if he would play his role in creation of new provinces in accordance with the Punjab resolution about creating a south Punjab province, he said, “It is as if a child who has been admitted to class-I is asked to answer a question of Master’s degree level”.

Answering a question whether he would act against the land-grabbers, he said as he had just taken the oath of his office he could not comment on it.

Former governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, while tendering his resignation from the office, had said that land-grabbers were more powerful than the governor and he had failed to get a piece of land of his family vacated from them.

A large number of people, particularly from the legal community, from Multan region were present at the spacious lawns of the Governor’s House on the occasion

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Saira Afzal Tarar, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal, IGP Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera and others attended the ceremony.

Mr Rajwana said being a worker he wished to invite a maximum number of workers to the ceremony but could not do so because of administrative reasons. However, he promised to do so by inviting groups of workers in future.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2015

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