KARACHI: In response to a petition challenging the designation of Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar as the deputy prime minister, the Sindh High Court on Thursday served notices to the cabinet division, the prime minister secretariat, and other defendants.
The attorney general was also placed on notice by the SHC division bench, which is led by Chief Justice Aqeel Ahmed, for May 30.
A regular litigant filed a petition with the SHC, citing the cabinet division, PM secretariat, principal secretary to the president, and secretary of the National Assembly as respondents. The petitioner argued that the cause of action began when the impugned notification was issued on April 28, prima facie in violation of the public’s fundamental rights.
The petitioner claimed to be an active attorney who filed the case in the public interest to uphold the constitution’s supremacy and to defend the constitutional framework.
A “habitual” plaintiff tells SHC that the Constitution makes no reference of such a position.
Additionally, he contended that the Constitution’s structure, namely Articles 90 to 94, had no mention of a deputy prime minister position, but Article 224(IA) allowed the President to choose a caretaker prime minister after consulting with the PM in the event of an Assembly dissolution.
He further argued, however, that no part of the constitution gave the PM the power to name or select a deputy PM, and that the position of deputy PM was not mentioned in part 250, which dealt with the pay and other benefits of the PM and others.
The petitioner contended that the PM lacked any jurisdiction to establish such a position or appoint someone as deputy PM.
The petitioner claimed that since the contested notification was unlawful and had been issued without legal authority, the immunity in question was not attracted in this particular case when the bench questioned the petitioner about maintainability of the petition in light of the immunity granted to the PM under Article 248 of the constitution.
Additionally, he believed that the Supreme Court had previously considered this aspect of the issue in the 1998 decision in the case of Syed Masroor Ahsan versus Ardeshir Cowasjee and others, holding that the PM was required by Article 248 of the constitution to obey the law and the constitution, and that such immunity could not extend to unlawful or unconstitutional acts.
The petitioner further cited a different ruling from the supreme court in the case of Messers Mustafa Impex and others versus the Pakistani government, wherein it was decided that the prime minister and federal ministers were the components of the cabinet as defined by Article 91, despite the petitioner’s claim that the deputy prime minister was not.
In its order, the bench stated that the petitioner had also cited a ruling from the highest court in the Senate through its chairman versus Shahiq Ahmed Khan case from 2016, which established that the provisions of a void notification may be successfully and competently contested and that no time limit was imposed.
“Contention brought up important points. In accordance with Section 27A CPC, let a pre-admission notice be sent to the respondents and the Pakistani attorney general, to be served via the first three means on May 30, 2024,” it concluded.
