ISLAMABAD: A lawyer has moved a petition in the Supreme Court seeking an order restraining Syed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari from holding the office of Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development.
The application also called for declaring illegal the Sept 14 notification regarding his appointment with the status of minister of state.
The petition was jointly moved by Mohammad Adil Chattha and Mirza Abdul Moiz Baig on Wednesday highlighting that Mr Bukhari, commonly known as Zulfi Bukhari, faced disqualification under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution which deals with qualification and disqualification of elected members.
The petitioner argued that the special assistant was a dual national having British nationality, adding this information was also acknowledged by Prime Minister Imran Khan in an interview on a private television channel on June 26. Therefore, it is imperative to appoint individuals to high office whose antecedents should be known and who maintain the highest standards of integrity.
Petitioner contends person who is ineligible to become a minister cannot be given the status of minister of state
The commands of the law and the constitution should not be compromised at the altar of extraneous considerations, the petition contended, adding the rules, pursuant to which special assistants were appointed have been framed by the federal government in exercise of the powers conferred under Articles 90 and 99 of the Constitution.
The petition highlighted that the prime minister’s discretion to appoint special assistant is subject to general scheme of the Constitution including Articles 2A, 4, 5, 62 and 63.
In the 2018 Zulfikar Bhutta case, the Supreme Court had held that the chosen representatives of the people while exercising powers and authority of the state ought to exercise the sovereignty of Almighty Allah as His delegates by way of a sacred trust.
Faithful adherence to the provisions of Article 62 of the Constitution provides a recipe for cleansing the fountain heads of the state from persons who suffer from character flaws, openly violate injunctions of Islam, lack adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings, do not practice obligatory duties prescribed by Islam, do not abstain from major sins, not sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest and Ameen, or not convicted for crimes involving moral turpitude or gave false evidence or had worked against the integrity of the country or opposed the ideology of Pakistan.
It is a cardinal principle of law and justice that ‘what cannot be done directly, cannot be done indirectly,’ the petition said.
Thus a person, who otherwise is disqualified to become a member of the parliament and, therefore, ineligible to become a minister cannot be given the status of minister of state by appointing him a special assistant to prime minister.
The prime minister is vested with discretion to appoint special assistant who may be entrusted with performing the functions of a minister of state. Such discretion allows the prime minister to appoint technocrats and experts not elected to the parliament, facilitating better administration and governance.
Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2018
