Awami Muslim League (AML) chief and former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed Friday challenged the appointment of PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) in a petition filed with the Islamabad High Court (IHC). Rashid questioned the appointment of Hanif Abbasi, saying that the office of the SAPM required the selection of “people possessing high virtues and strong moral fiber” The petitioner contended that Abbasi, “a person with a criminal conviction, particularly a conviction for dealing in narcotics which is an offence involving ‘moral turpitude’,” was unsuitable to hold such a position, says a news report. He argued that the SAPM’s office was one of the few public offices recognized and identified by the provisions of Article 260 of the Constitution, while the PML-N leader was convicted and sentenced for the offences registered against him. He said suspension of Abbasi’s sentence by the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) did not forgive his conviction. “In criminal jurisprudence, there is indeed a marked difference between conviction and sentence. Conviction is finding someone guilty positively of the offence(s) charged with, whereas sentence is the punishment (imprisonment or fine or both) for being guilty of that offence. The Honourable Lahore High Court only suspended the sentence of the Respondent No.2 [Hanif Abbasi] meaning thereby that he still carries the conviction.
Therefore, for all intents and purposes, Respondent No.2, being a convict, is disqualified from holding the public office of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister,” the petition read.
The petition lambasted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s judgment stating, “Although the prime minister’s discretion to appoint special assistants is apparently without codified conditions or limitations, in essence, this discretion is neither ‘unfettered’ nor ‘absolute’.”
Rashid said the premier was subject to exercise the discretion reasonably, lawfully and constitutionally to appoint a person who was fit to hold such high public office and was not otherwise disqualified from holding such office.
“Unfortunately, by appointing a convict (that too in narcotics case), the prime minister has not only misused his authority, but also made a mockery of the rule of law and the Constitution,” it maintained.
In 2018, an anti-narcotics court handed down life imprisonment to Hanif Abbasi in the ephedrine case.
According to the judgment issued late at night, Abbasi, who was the PML-N candidate from NA-60 against Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, had failed to defend himself, and the charges leveled against him had proved true.
However, in 2019, the LHC suspended his life sentence and ordered his release on bail.