LAHORE - Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, who took oath as 36th Governor of Punjab here on Sunday, knows his Constitutional limits and won’t do anything beyond his stipulated role.
As he pledged to serve the people of Punjab especially those from the Southern belt during his media interaction after the oath-taking ceremony, a questioner reminded him of the ceremonial nature of his office devoid of any administrative authority.
Rajwana responded by stating that Constitution was very clear about it.
He said that he would perform his functions within the framework of the Constitution.
Following a volley of questions about his powers and ceremonial role as Governor, Rajwana smilingly said: “I could not really understand what the media expected of him to do as Governor. “On the one hand, the media reminds me of my limited role under the Constitution, while on the other, it also expects me to exceed my Constitutional limits”, he observed.
Before this, he had faced tough questions like inordinate delay in the announcement of next NFC Award and the creation of new province comprising Southern Punjab.
The Governor parried these tricky questions by not giving any direct answer.
On the NFC Award, he only contended to state that he would give his ‘input’ on the issue.
On the question of new province, he laughed and said: “I have just been admitted in grade one while you are asking a question of the level of a Master degree”.
It is relevant to mention here that under Article-105 of the Constitution, the Governor has to act on advice of the Chief Minister on all matters regarding the province.
Though under the law the Governor is Chancellor of the public sector universities, but he has no power to appoint or remove a Vice-Chancellor of any university.
This power lies with the Chief Minister.
There was an interesting exchange of questions and answers when a reporter asked the Governor to comment on the likely decision of Election Tribunal on NA-122 after the one on NA-125.
“Do you know the relevant the law”, he asked the questioner, who kept quite. Another reporter, however, intervened and said he knew the law. The Governor asked: “But the one who has asked the question does not know it” The second one replied: “He is my younger brother”. There was laughter and the reporters moved on to other questions.
Rafique Rajwana, who is 9th Punjab Governor from South Punjab, vowed to work for the uplift of his area under able leadership of his party.
Before him, Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani, Ghulam Mustafa Khar, Sadiq Hussain Qureshi, Nawab Abbass Khan Abbasi, Makhdum Sajjad Hussain Qureshi, Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa, Sardar Latif Khan Khosa and Makhdum Ahmad Mehmood have served as Punjab Governor during different tenures.
Speaking about his party’s priorities for South Punjab, he said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had special liking for the people of this part of the province. He said that many development projects had been initiated in Southern Punjab including the Solar Power project recently inaugurated by the Prime Minister.
While mentioning the solar project as the gift from the Federal government for South Punjab, the newly appointed Governor conveniently forgot the fact that electricity produced from this project would be added to the national grid and the Southern Punjab would get only a fraction of it.
Rajwana identified health, education and terrorism as the main issues he would endeavour to resolve in collaboration with the PML-N leadership. He also said that issues like eradication of poverty, unemployment and loadshedding were among the top most priorities of his party’s government.
The Governor said party workers were the backbone of a party and he would not betray their trust. He also thanked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for reposing trust in him.
Earlier, Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, Mr Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik administered the oath while Punjab Chief Secretary, Khizar Hayat Gondal read out the Presidential order regarding his appointment as Punjab Governor.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, federal and provincial Ministers and high ranking civil and military officers attended the ceremony.
Senior PML-N leaders, Raja Zafarul Haq, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal were prominent on the occasion.
GILANI FELICITATES GOVERNOR
APP adds: Former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani congratulated Punjab Governor Rafique Rajwana.
Talking to journalists here on Sunday, the former prime minister said Rafique Rajwana would play an important role to resolve problems of locals.