LAHORE, July 26: Additional Advocate-General Mohammad Haneef Khatana on Wednesday submitted before Justice Mian Hamid Farooq of the Lahore High Court that an LHC division bench had on Tuesday issued notices in an intra-court appeal through which the Punjab government had assailed the single bench’s injunctive order under which it was restrained from appointing more advisers.

The court was proceeding in the constitutional writ petition, filed by a local prayer leader, Maulana Malik Shah Ahmad Khan, which primarily challenged the appointment of Mian Mohammad Munir as an adviser to the government on the plea that he was convicted by the Supreme Court in a contempt case, and that he could not be appointed to an office of profit.

The court adjourned till September 9 the proceedings in the main petition with the instructions to the Punjab Services and General Administration Department that notices issued to the advisers should be communicated to them. The court had, on the previous date of the hearing of the petition issued notices to advisers and the law officer submitted that they could not be served.

As for the Punjab government’s intra-court appeal, it was taken up by a division bench, comprising Justice Mohammad Muzammil Khan and Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Razvi, and Advocate-General Mohammad Aftab Iqbal Chaudhry submitted that the LHC’s injunctive order of July 20 suffered from a legal infirmity as restraining the government from appointing more advisers amounted to virtually deciding the main petition to the detriment of the government.

Referring to the court order, the advocate-general submitted that it stopped the government from issuing the notification of the appointment of Hafiz Mohammad Iqbal Khan Khakwani as an adviser. He submitted that Mr Khakwani and other advisers to the provincial government and the chief minister were appointed under the Punjab Advisers (Salary, Allowances and Privileges) Ordinance of 2002 and the government was competent to make such appointments.

The AG stated the single bench was not empowered to issue an injunctive order at a stage when the question of advisers’ appointments was being adjudicated. He requested the court the July 20 order be declared as illegal, and the government allowed to issue the notification of Mr Khakwani’s appointment as an adviser and also permitted to make more such appointments.