SC judges fume over delay in appointment of Climate Change Authority chief

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan on Friday expressed anger over lethargic behavior of the government to appoint chairman and members of Climate Change Authority, reported 24NewsHDTV channel.

During hearing of the case, Justice Jamal Mandokhel said that climate change is a serious issue for which the government should move with a tiger speed but instead it is moving like a turtle.

On this occasion Additional Attorney General informed the court that the government has published advertisements three times for the purpose.

Justice Mandokhel asked “why there was no progress on previous two advertisements?” In reply to this question, Attorney-General informed the court that all short-listed candidates were dual-nationals.

He went on to saying that it’s policy of the federal government that any person who holds dual-nationality will not be eligible for appointment on higher government positions.

Justice Jamal Mandokhel said “you are in search of high-level and efficient person for this prestigious post so you have to compromise on some conditions”.

Justice Mandokhel said that real issue is that how the authority will start its operations in the provinces.

Justice Aminuddin Khan said that Faisal Amin was nominated by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government who is a brother of current Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur.

The Vice-Chancellor of Baochistan University was appointed as member. On this Justice Jamal Mandokhel said that he knows the member from Balochistan who has no experience in this field.

He said that bureaucrats were nominated from Punjab and Sindh provinces.

Additional Attorney-General informed the court that he will contact with provincial government and will ask them to nominate technocrats for this position.

Justice Jamal Mandokhel asked whether rules of the authority were prepared? On this Additional Attorney-General said that draft of rules is already finalized and they will be forwarded to Ministry of Law for approval.

Justice Mandokhel said that the law was passed in 2017 but still no rules were finalized and even not a chairman was appointed. He said that that we all know the procedure for appointment of head of environment agency.

Later the hearing of the case was adjourned for one months.

Reporter: Amanat Gishkori