ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to Prime Minister Imran Khan and his special assistant on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari.
A hearing was conducted at the apex court over a petition regarding Zulfi Bukhari’s disqualification for holding a dual nationality.
Premier Imran, Zulfi Bukhari and other respondents have been issued notices by the court.
“What position does Zulfi Bukhari hold?” Chief Justice of Pakistan questioned Bukhari’s counsel, who responded that Bukhari is serving as a special assistant to the prime minister.
“Can a common man become a minster while holding dual nationality?” CJP questioned.
“If a person holding dual citizenship can’t become a parliamentarian, then he can’t become a minister too,” the top judge commented during the proceedings.
Hearing of the case has been adjourned till Friday.
In September, the Supreme Court registrar returned a constitutional petition against the appointment of Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, popularly known as Zulfi Bukhari, as special assistant to the prime minister.
The Supreme Court registrar raised objections, saying the petitioners did not approach the proper forum and the prime minister has been impleaded as a respondent in the petition, which cannot be done under Article 248 of the Constitution.
Bukhari is a close aide and friend of Prime Minister Imran Khan and was appointed as special assistant to the prime minister for overseas Pakistanis and human resource development.
The petition filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution takes issue with Bukhari’s dual nationality and states that he is currently under investigation by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
The challenge to Bukhari’s appointment comes from Mirza Moiz Baig and Adil Chattha, two recent law graduates of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Baig and Chattha said that the registrar was not a judicial order, which would be challenged soon.
They also raised the point that the Supreme Court had in the past accepted petitions wherein the PM was impleaded as a party, citing cases of Yousaf Raza Gilani and Nawaz Sharif. They said the court in those cases held that the immunity under Article 248 was not absolute.
