Former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed challenged the appointment of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi as special assistant to prime minister (SAPM) on Friday through a petition filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
In the petition filed through his counsel Sajeel Sheryar Swati, Rashid questioned the federal government’s appointment of Hanif Abbasi, stating that the office of the SAPM required the selection of “people possessing high virtues and strong moral fibre…to these important public offices.” 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’,” is unsuitable to hold such a position. In his petition, Rashid argued that the SAPM’s office was one of the few public offices recognised and identified by the provisions of Article 260 of the Constitution. It furthered that while the PML-N leader was convicted and sentenced for the offences registered against him, the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) suspension of the sentence did not forgive his conviction.
