ISLAMABAD: With doomsdays having a field day on Thursday predicting a grim scenario because of a perceived conflict between the executive and judiciary, there was an atmosphere of calm at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat which has been at the centre of a controversy over the relegation of establishment secretary Sohail Ahmed to a sinecure post of ‘official on special duty’.

The Supreme Court ordered the government to revert the officer to the secretary’s post on Friday.  One question which was doing the rounds in the capital on Thursday centered on the government’s reaction to the order.

Mr Ahmed has been punished for obeying the court’s orders to transfer Hussain Asghar, the IG of Gilgit-Baltistan, back to the Federal Investigation Agency to enable him to resume investigation into the unprecedented mismanagement in last year’s Haj operations. The move angered the government because the secretary did not seek the prime minister’s approval.

If the government refuses to implement the court’s order will the apex court initiate a contempt of court charge against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was another question TV anchorpersons kept asking their guests.

Sources at the PM Secretariat said the government was determined to defend its executive authority in the Supreme Court. But, they said, if the court insisted on the reinstatement of the establishment secretary, some legal advisers of the government were of the opinion that there would be no harm in following the order instead of creating a constitutional crisis. “After all, implementation of the court’s orders is the executive’s responsibility,” they added.

They said that over the past couple of days, government’s legal minds, led by Senator Babar Awan, had discussed different options, including reinstatement of the establishment secretary as a last resort. However, the sources said, the attorney general would try to convince the court that it was the government’s right to post and transfer civil servants.—Khawar Ghumman