Govt may challenge SHC ruling against law adviser’s appointment

The Sindh Assembly was informed on Wednesday that the provincial government was considering moving the apex court to challenge the Sindh High Court’s verdict wherein it had nullified Barrister Murtaza Wahab’s appointment as law adviser.

Parliamentary affairs minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said he did not want to comment on the judiciary’s decision on the appointment of the chief minister’s law adviser but it was a fact the Constitution authorised the executive to appoint both elected and unelected people as advisers.

He added that advisers were not only present in the provincial government, but working in the Centre’s set-up too.

The issue of the SHC declaring the law adviser’s appointment illegal came under discussion in the provincial assembly as it considered the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

The amendment bill authorises the provincial govt to appoint either a provincial minister or an adviser or a special assistant to chief minister as the chairman of the Sindh Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (STEVTA).

Muttahida Qaumi Movement MPA Syed Sardar Ahmed objected to the proposed law as it allowed the provincial government to appoint an adviser or special assistant as the STEVTA chairman noting that the SHC had recently declared the appointment of the law adviser null and void.

He said the provision in the amendment law authorising the provincial government to appoint a special assistant as the chairman of STEVTA should be deleted as Constitution did not mention the appointment of a special assistant by the executive authority.

He said the word “special assistant” should be omitted from the STEVTA amendment bill and in its place the words “provincial minister” or the “eligible nominee of the provincial minister” should be inserted

Responding to this objection, the parliamentary affairs minister said it was surprising that a person possessing the qualification of a barrister had been declared ineligible to become the law adviser of the provincial government while it was ruled that the advocate general could perform the same duties.

“If that was the case, then what is the need for have a separate law department?” Khuhro added.

Regarding the objection that the Constitution had no provision for appointing a special assistant, Khuhro said parliamentary norms included the provision for the functioning of parliamentary secretaries while any other eligible person could also work as a provincial minister’s nominee.

Later, the STEVTA amendment bill was passed by the House after clause-by-clause approval of the law.

Snorkel purchase

In a call-attention notice, MQM’s Khawaja Izha-ul-Hassan, the leader of the opposition in the House, expressed serious concerns over media reports that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation was going to buy a fire-fighting snorkel at an exorbitant cost of Rs570 million.

Referring to the media reports, he noted that tenders were floated for the procurement of the snorkel on October 27 on the 30th of the current month, tenders would be opened.

He said if the reports about the purchase of a snorkel at such a high cost were true, the chief minister or the local government minister should take notice of the issue and order a probe into the matter either through the anti-corruption establishment, police, or the National Accountability Bureau.

He said the snorkel being purchased had a length of 104 metres and weighed 70 tonnes and could reach buildings having 40 stories, but in Karachi, there were very few buildings that had more than 20 floors.

He said for Lahore, the Punjab government had bought a similar snorkel at a cost of Rs220 million.

“If we add expenditures related to customs duties and similar other additional expenses, even then the cost of such a snorkel should not exceed Rs270 million,” he added.

He suspected that an embezzlement of Rs300 million was taking place if the snorkel was being bought for Rs570 million.

He added that the KMC already had two snorkels that could reach a height of 40 metres but both were faulty and lying idle. He questioned as to why the provincial government could not spend Rs35 million to have them repaired.

Responding to the call-attention notice, local government minister Jam Khan Shoro said if he would follow the advice of the opposition leader if he could recommend any person to the government who could provide a snorkel to the KMC on a lesser rate. He said that in the past, the KMC had never allocated resources or taken initiative on its own to have its faulty snorkels repaired.

He added that the snorkel with a higher reach was being bought in view of the rampant increase in the construction of high-rise buildings in Karachi.

He mentioned the fire at a commercial building in Clifton area during the last month of Ramazan in which two security guards were killed.

Responding to another call attention notice by PTI’s Khurrum Sher Zaman, the local government minister said his department, police, and the district administration concerned conducted operations to remove encroachments in different parts of the city and a similar crackdown had taken place on Burns Road area around 15 days ago.

He said when pushcart vendors were removed from one area they started operating in other places as they demanded that the government should provide them with ample place to earn their livelihood.

He said the provincial government was considering constructing a special market for pushcart vendors in the city.

rippling disease were reported from separate districts of Sindh. Safdar said the emergence of the new cases was unfortunate.