Mr. Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani Mr. Justice Anwar Zaheer

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Constitution Petition No. 73 of 2011 20 the Federal Government had already slept over the matter for about three and a half month and if the petitioner had reserved his comments about suitability or otherwise of respondent No. 3 for the relevant office and had made some suggestions regarding the process then if the President had disagreed with the process suggested by the petitioner then he ought to have written to the petitioner that his suggestions were not acceptable and that he should now offer his opinion about suitability or otherwise of respondent No. 3 for the relevant office. The factual background mentioned above is sufficient to expose the hollowness of the stand taken by the learned counsel for respondent No. 3 regarding the urgency involved in the matter. Apart from that if the President had already slept over the matter for about three and a half months then consuming a few more days for making the consultative process meaningful, purposive and consensusoriented would not have hurt anybody. A conclusion is, therefore, irresistible and unavoidable that the President had failed to make any serious, sincere and genuine effort to evolve a consensus with the petitioner over the matter of appointment of respondent No. 3 as the Chairman, National Accountability Bureau. In the circumstances of the case detailed above we have entertained no manner of doubt that proper consultation as required by the provisions of section 6(b)(i) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and as interpreted by this Court in various judgments, particularly in the case of Shahid Orakazi and another v. Pakistan through Secretary Law, Ministry of Law, Islamabad and another (PLD 2011 SC 365), had not taken place in the present case before appointment of respondent No. 3 as the Chairman, National Accountability Bureau. 8. A lot of emphasis has been laid by Mr. Muhammad Akram Sheikh, Sr. ASC appearing for the petitioner upon the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan being a consultee in the matter of appointment of the Chairman, National Accountability Bureau and
Constitution Petition No. 73 of 2011 21 suggestions and recommendation having been made by this Court in that regard in various judgments including the judgment delivered in the case of Shahid Orakazi and another v. Pakistan through Secretary Law, Ministry of Law, Islamabad and another (PLD 2011 SC 365). As against that the learned counsel for respondent No. 3 as well as the learned Attorney-General for Pakistan have argued with vehemence that the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan does not figure in the provisions of section 6(b)(i) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 as a consultee and that this Court had no jurisdiction to add a consultee to the process of appointment of a Chairman, National Accountability Bureau where the relevant law did not make him so. We have found all such submissions to be missing the point. It goes without saying that a suggestion or a recommendation made by this Court in a judgment, though entitled to due respect, deference and consideration, does not travel beyond a suggestion or a recommendation and it does not by itself assume the status of law. By its nature and form a suggestion or a recommendation is simply what it is, nothing more and nothing less. In this view of the matter this aspect of the case may not detain us any further. 9. Production of photocopies of some press reports by the learned counsel for respondent No. 3 tending to show that the political party to which the petitioner belongs and the head of that political party had offered no objection or resistance to the appointment of respondent No. 3 as the Chairman, National Accountability Bureau has been found by us to be irrelevant because a Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly does not merely represent his own political party in the National Assembly but he represents the entire Opposition in the National Assembly which may include members belonging to many political parties and also independent members. Apart from that for the purposes of section 6(b)(i) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 it is only the opinion of the Leader of the
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Mr. Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani Mr. Justice Anwar Zaheer

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