ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi on Monday granted his approval for the appointment of Baligh-ur-Rehman as the new governor of Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab, the president’s office said, after weeks of political wrangling between the president and the prime minister’s offices.
The president has at least twice in recent weeks denied approval to a summary sent by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif seeking the replacement of Omar Sarfraz Cheema as the Punjab governor. Alvi, a close aide of ex-premier Imran Khan, on May 21 asked Sharif to reconsider his advice to appoint a new governor.
A governor in Pakistan is the appointed head of state of a province. He or she is appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister and can serve for a tenure that lasts up to five years.
“President Dr. Arif Alvi has approved the appointment of Baligh-ur-Rehman as the Punjab governor,” the president’s office said in a tweet. “The president granted approval on the advice of the prime minister under Article 101 (1) of the constitution.”
Punjab, the most populous province of the country, has been the center of a political drama for the last several weeks.
The Sharif government sought to replace Cheema, also a Khan aide, soon after it came to power in April, after Khan was ousted in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.
After Cheema refused to step down, the federal government on May 9 attempted to remove him through a Cabinet Division notification, stating that he had ceased to hold the office on the advice of PM Sharif. But President Alvi said he still held the office of the governor and there was “no occasion to propose a new appointment.”
Uncertainty also prevails in Punjab with regards the fate of Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on May 20 de-seated 25 dissident legislators who belonged to former PM Khan’s party but had defected and voted in Shehbaz’s favor in an April election for the CM’s slot.
With these 25 lawmakers no longer members of the House, Shehbaz has lost his majority in the Punjab Assembly, raising questions about the status of his government.
Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi has also filed a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking Shehbaz’s removal from the chief minister’s post.
