Daily Times

KARACHI: While the Sindh High Court (SHC) gave its verdict against the appointment of advisors to the Sindh chief minister, the leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is mulling over to appoint parliamentary secretaries to run the provincial departments, Daily Times has learnt.

According to sources, the PPP leadership is now considering to appoint elected members of Sindh Assembly as ‘Parliamentary Secretaries’ following the administrative pattern of Punjab province where parliamentary secretaries are working with portfolios.

In December 2013, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif approved appointment of 35 Punjab Assembly members as parliamentary secretaries for different departments. The parliamentary secretaries in Punjab are representing various departments in the assembly.

Under the new proposal, the parliamentary secretaries are likely to be appointed and would be allotted portfolios to run the affairs of the department.

They will be enjoying perks and privileges of a provincial minister, sources disclosed.

In this connection, chief minister Murad Ali Shah has flown to Dubai to discuss the matter with party’s leadership – Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, a two-judge bench gave a detailed judgment stating that there are terms and conditions provided in the Constitution for advisers to be appointed by the prime minister, however, there were no such rules provided for the appointment of advisers to the chief minister.

Interestingly, the three advisors and seven special assistants to chief minister Sindh were claiming that they have resigned following “Judicial Activism”.

However, the fact is that these advisors and special assistants were de-notified by Sindh Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon in two separate notifications dated February 2, 2017.

The advisors were Moula Bux Chandio, Saeed Ghani and Asghar Junejo while special assistants included Burhan Khan Chandio, Nadir Khowaja, Umer Rehman Malik, Engineer Babar Effendi, Zulfikar Behan, Anthony Naveed and Dr Abdul Qayoom Soomro.