PESHAWAR, March 10 The appointment of Owais Ahmad Ghani as NWFP governor over two months ago has been challenged in the Peshawar High Court on Monday with the request to restrain the new provincial assembly from holding any session until the issue is resolved.

A writ petition was filed by freelance journalist, Shahid Orakzai, stating that no resignation of Mr Ghani from the office of Balochistan governor was on record, thus he was not qualified to function as governor of NWFP.

He prayed the high court to declare the appointment of incumbent governor, Owais Ahmad Ghani, as ultra vires of the Constitution and instruct the federation to fill the office of the governor by a suitable person in accordance with the constitution.

The petitioner also sought interim relief from the court stating that the high court may kindly request the president to direct some other person to act as governor until the disposal of the petition or the high court may restrain the new provincial assembly from holding any session until the disposal of the petition.

Mr Orakzai states that the president had appointed Mr Ghani as the NWFP governor as per the gazette notification on Jan 8. He added that while the impugned notification mentioned the acceptance of the resignation of the then governor, Lt Gen (retd) Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, it made no absolutely no mention of any resignation by Mr Ghani.

The petitioner questioned as to how did Mr Ghani vacate the office of the governor Balochistan? He claimed that the incumbent governor was not empowered to do any of the constitutional acts including summoning of the provincial assembly under Article 109 of the Constitution, invite an MPA under Article 130 to be the chief minister, conduct oath to the chief minister and provincial ministers under Article 130 and 132, address the provincial assembly under Article 110 and make and promulgate a provincial ordinance under Article 128.

Mr Orakzai states that in its commitment to defend the constitution, this high court has to intervene and prevent any further violation of the constitution within the province if not in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas where the same person may be exercising authority under Article 145.

The respondents in the petition are Pakistan through secretary cabinet division and the NWFP government through the advocate general.