ISLAMABAD: The federal as well as all the four provincial governments on Thursday assured the Supreme Court that they will abide by the court’s 2023 judgement and avoid personal publicity over public projects.
The assurance was given to the three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Naeem Akhtar Afghan, hearing the case.
The law officers of the federal and all four provincial governments assured the Supreme Court to implement the court’s year 2023 judgment, which had prohibited personal publicity over development projects.
The apex court summoned statements on oath from the federal as well as provincial governments.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) said that all provinces were united on the issue of personal publicity and none of them opposed to it.
The court questioned about the number of law officers in Sindh. “There are 80 law officers in Sindh,” Sindh’s lawyer told the court. “There is a battalion of 80 law officers in Sindh, while no permanent law officer has been in Islamabad,” the CJP remarked.
Provincial law officers informed the court there are 18 law officers in Balochistan, 40 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 86 in Punjab. “The most populated province Punjab have 86 law officers while Sindh have 80 law officers,” the chief justice said.
Punjab government’s lawyer told the court that the province will bring the number of lawyers down from 86 to 66. “Each law officer in Sindh have Rs. five lac monthly salary thus 40 million rupees being paid to law officers of Sindh from the pockets of the people of the province,” CJP said.
“The court doesn’t get better assistance from Sindh’s law officers. They appear before the court on video-link but with poor voice quality,” the top judge said. “We don’t want to interfere in government matters but what is crime of the poor people,” he said. “We want to see a strong and vibrant democracy”, CJP said.
