LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has claimed that Punjab Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal was persuaded and pressurised by “namaloom afraad”, who usually call from unknown phone numbers, to sign and give effect to the governor’s notification denotifying the chief minister and his cabinet.

Speaking to journalists at his Zaman Park residence here, Mr Khan said Governor Balighur Rehman had put forward legal opinions given by his private lawyers, including Khalid Ranjha, and wanted Chief Secretary Sumbal to sign the notification.

Answering a question, he claimed the chief secretary had tried to resist the ‘pressure’ and written to the governor to appoint a panel of legal experts, but his demand remained unheeded.

Sources also said Mr Sumbal was pushed to sign the governor’s notification on the basis of three legal experts’ opinions forwarded by the Governor House. They said the CS had explicitly responded to the order that there were varied interpretations of the notification and he needed inputs for a nuanced understanding of such a serious matter.

They also said the CS was not detained or harassed, but he stayed engaged in long, protracted meetings and negotiations. He got a lot of solicited and unsolicited legal opinions.

Sources in the PML-Q also said the chief minister wanted the chief secretary to delay the notification.

Meanwhile, PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi said in an interview to a news channel that the Punjab government was investigating who coerced the chief secretary to sign the notification. The governor’s personal lawyers had prepared legal opinion on the order, which was later suspended by the Lahore High Court, and wanted the chief secretary to sign on instantly.

“The chief secretary takes legal opinion on legal matters from the Punjab Law Department or the advocate general, but he was denied this facility,” he claimed.

Mr Elahi, however, expressed ignorance on the reports that Mr Sumbal was detained in his office for three hours, as claimed by PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry, before he signed the governor’s order denotifying the chief minister and dissolving the provincial cabinet. He also said he was unaware if the chief secretary was in touch with the chief minister.

Mr Chaudhry had claimed on Friday that the Punjab Assembly had summoned the chief secretary for Saturday to explain what happened and who forced him to sign the notification after midnight on Thursday. Only elected representatives could elect or remove a chief minister, he maintained.

However, sources told Dawn, the chief secretary was never summoned by the assembly to explain his position.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2022