By Intikhab Hanif
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif sent an advice to Governor Latif Khosa on Saturday evening for the removal of seven PPP ministers from his cabinet.
The provincial government also removed 13 parliamentary secretaries of the People’s Party late in the afternoon.
Sources in the Governor’s House confirmed that the advice regarding the removal of the PPP ministers had been received.
They said the governor was not likely to immediately respond to the advice because he was to attend the wedding ceremonies of the daughters of the Lahore High Court chief justice and PPP Secretary General Jehangir Badar.
“There is a lot of VVIP movement in Lahore tonight,” an official said.
Officials of the Punjab government said the advice had been sent under Article 132 of the Constitution, according to which the chief minister could ask for the removal of ministers from his cabinet.
He was advised by his legal experts not to dissolve his cabinet because in that case he would have to seek a fresh vote of confidence – a seemingly difficult task as without the Unification Bloc the PML-N is three votes short of a simple majority in the house.
They said that under the Constitution, it was mandatory for the governor to accept the advice within 15 days. Otherwise the ministers would stand removed automatically.
According to officials in the Governor’s House, Mr Khosa has an option to return the advice to the chief minister for reconsideration in 15 days. This would allow another 10 days for a decision.
But, they added, the governor was not likely to resist the move as the PPP was happy over the PML-N’s decision to remove its seven ministers from the Shahbaz cabinet.
Sources said that the chief minister had sought opinion from his team of legal experts about how to remove the ministers two days ago, indicating that the homework had been completed one day before the announcement to part ways with the People’s Party.
They said the announcement regarding the PML-N move was also not a surprise for the PPP as they knew it beforehand.
They said that both the PPP and the PML-N would act as rival parties in the centre and in Punjab, but they were not likely to hurt each other.
Sources said the chief minister had not as yet finalised the list of his new ministers. He had instead started interviewing 47 members of the Unification group to pick new ministers from amongst them. “As per the schedule he is to interview six of them every day,” an official revealed.
Another official said the chief minister had been advised that under Article 63-A of the Constitution, majority of a parliamentary bloc could take a decision (to join the government). Therefore, being the majority group of the PML-Q, its unification group could support the PML-N to help it keep its government intact in the province.
The PPP ministers included Raja Riaz Ahmad (irrigation), Ashraf Sohna (labour and human rights), Tanvir Ashraf Kaira (finance and youth affairs), Neelam Jabbar Chaudhry (population welfare), Haji Muhammad Ishaq (revenue) and Farook Yousaf Ghurki (minister without portfolio).
The parliamentary secretaries who were removed through a notification by the Law Department are MPAs Nargis Moeen Malik, Raja Tariq Kiani, Faiza Malik, Sardar Kamil Gujjar, Malik Nausher Langrial, Azma Zahid Bukhari, Sagheera Islam, Shehzad Saeed Cheema, Shaukat Basra, Nishat Khan Daha, Mian Aslam, Engineer Azhar Javaid Iqbal Dhillon and Dr Akhtar Ali Malik.
Sources in the People’s Party said no minister of the party attended his office on Saturday. Senior Minister Raja Riaz Ahmad had also returned his official bullet-proof car to the government.
Source: Dawn
Date:2/27/2011
