PTI challenges Mohsin’s appointment as interim Punjab CM

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday challenged the appointment of Mohsin Naqvi as the caretaker chief minister of Punjab.

The petition has been filed by PTI General Secretary Asad Umar. It has prayed to the apex court to stop Naqvi from working as the interim chief minister.

In the petition, the PTI has also challenged the appointments of Raja Riaz as the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The PTI has made the federal government, National Assembly Speaker Raja Parvez Ashraf, Leader of Opposition Raja Riaz, the governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ECP, and Punjab caretaker CM Mohsin Naqvi respondents in the case.

The petition states Naqvi unfortunately has no political, administrative, and legal experience in ensuring the rule of law, the working of governments, bureaucracy, the requirements of law and/ or the Constitution.

“It is also stated that the caretaker chief minister ought to possess certain but necessary intellectual and relative experience as well as characteristics which is to ensure that the appointed caretaker chief minister, is better equipped with expertise required for the office of the chief minister.

“This is unfortunately not the case herein. Equal or better-suited candidates were available and have not been considered consciously. An individual without any experience of political, constitutional, bureaucratic set-ups has been selected/appointed for this position for reasons which are not available nor discernible. The ‘decision’ has not been made available, as none is present in writing, though a conclusion thereof has been communicated vide notification No F.2(5)/2023-Cord- dated 22.01.2023 (‘Impugned Notification’) by the Respondent Commission. The same is patently unlawful and smacks of sheer arbitrariness.”

“How the issue of his suitability has been decided so as to result in an ‘unanimous’ communication of the respondent commission appointing him as the caretaker chief minister, is not manifest and in negation to the mandate of the Constitution.” The PTI said “there is not an iota of record which would justify” Naqvi’s appointment as the caretaker chief minister.

Meanwhile, Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has also filed a separate plea challenging CM Naqvi’s appointment.

Last week, amid disagreements among Punjab’s political stakeholders, Mohsin Raza Naqvi took oath as the interim chief minister at the Governor House in Lahore.

The electoral authority’s decision came after the government and the opposition failed to reach a consensus on finalising the name of a caretaker chief executive.