Punjab Governor Sarfraz Cheema’s appeal to the COAS, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, to intervene in the affairs of the province is an attempt to get the military to end the neutrality which it has begun to observe. Mr Cheema accompanied this appeal by the pledge to move a reference to the Supreme Judicial Council against Mr Justice Jawad Hasan of the Lahore High Court for his judgement ordering the National Assembly Speaker to administer the oath to the CM-elect, Mr Hamza Shehbaz. Mr Cheema’s own tenure of office is only because the President has refused to act on the advice of the Prime Minister, and if he will not be served by the Chief Minister, the only honourable option for him is to resign, not write letters without advice from the CM.
Mr Cheema at the moment is on shaky ground, because not only has he refrained from obeying LHC orders telling him to swear in Mr Shehbaz, or to appoint someone to do so, he is also now acting without the advice of the Chief Minister. He is free to write a letter to the COAS, but not as Governor, unless he has been so advised by the Chief Minister, or other competent authority (one of the provincial ministers, for example). Apart from the letter to the COAS, the reference to the SJC cannot be preferred by the Governor unless he has been so advised by the CM.
Apart from the flagrant impropriety of acting without the CM’s advice, the appeal to the COAS may well reveal that the PTI wants the Army, not so much to ensure fresh elections, as to take over. If the Army is observing a policy of non-interference, does the PTI perceive that as a bad thing? Rather than appeal to the Army, perhaps Mr Cheema should seek more time-honoured methods of protest, like leaving an office the federal government does not want him to hold. Creating a constitutional mass may earn him brownie points with his party leader, but it does nothing to enhance the prestige of the office he occupies.
