ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Friday filed a petition in the Supreme Court, wherein it challenged the appointment of Mohsin Naqvi as Punjab’s caretaker chief minister.
In the petition, the appointments of Raja Riaz Ahmed as the Opposition leader in the National Assembly, and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have also been challenged. The petition making the federal government, National Assembly Speaker, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, the governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ECP, and Punjab caretaker chief minister Mohsin Naqvi as respondents was filed by PTI’s General Secretary Asad Umar through Advocate Imtiaz Rashid Siddiqui.
The petition prayed the court to stop Mohsin Naqvi from working as the interim chief minister of Punjab as he has no political, administrative, and legal experience in ensuring the rule of law, the working of governments, bureaucracy, the requirements of law and the constitution. The petition contends that Mohsin Naqvi’s appointment by the ECP was “in direct violation of the provisions of the constitution read with the provisions of the Elections Act 2017 and the Election Rules 2017.
The petition prayed the court to declare the ECP as ‘en masse’ biased under Article 209 of the Constitution as it had abused constitutional and statutory powers. The petition requested that the appointment of Babar Hassan Bharwana and Justice (r) Ikramullah Khan as ECP members be declared in violation of the Constitution, and be struck down.
It prayed that PPP leader Raja Riaz’s appointment in May 2022 as the Leader of the Opposition be suspended as well, since it was “without lawful authority and of no legal effect”. The petition alleged that National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf had ‘exercised mala fide powers’ in designating Raja Riaz for the role.