The Lahore High Court (LHC), while issuing notices to advisors to the Chief Minister Punjab, directed them to submit their replies to the court by April 20, and also explain as under which authority of law they were retaining their offices.
The court passed these orders during the course of a petition filed by one Shah Muhammad - a Khateeb of a mosque in Nawankot.
The petitioner had challenged the appointments of advisors to CM with contention that the Punjab Chief Minister had no lawful authority to appoint them. He also submitted that advisors to CM i e Chaudhry Akhtar Rasool and Mian Muhammad Munir were also convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the court had already declared their appointments as illegal and without lawful authority.
On Thursday, the law officer produced the list of advisors to CM. He contended that Chief Minister has discretionary power under the rules of business for appointing his advisors. According to the list produced before the court, in total 19 advisors are working out of whom six are advisors to Chief Minister and rest of them are advisors to the provincial government. The advisors to Chief Minister are Rana Ijaz, Naeem Khan, Muhammad Khizar Hayat, Malik Khalid, Ahmed Khan and Saba Sadiq.
The advisors to the government of Punjab include: Muhammad Mansha Sindhu, Qaiser Amin Butt, Chaudhry Muhammad Sadiq, Kamal Ali Agha, Haji Muhammad Hanif, Shaukat Ali Lalika, Sardar Ahmed Yar Hiraj, Makhdoom Iftikhar Hussain Gillani, Akhtar Rasool, Mian Munir, Pir Mukhtar, Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Asharfi, Dr Faiza Asghar, Dr Javed and Raja Muhammad Nasir.