LAHORE - A five-member full bench of the Lahore High Court on Friday admitted for regular hearing a petition challenging the appointment of chairman services tribunal and Punjab ombudsman by the acting governor and issued notices to the speaker Punjab Assembly and other respondents. The petition was filed by PPP finance secretary Aurangzeb Burki assailing the appointment of both ombudsman and chairman service tribunal made by the speaker Punjab Assembly while holding the post of acting governor Punjab. Initially the petition had come up for hearing before a division bench but the matter was referred to the chief justice Lahore High Court for considering the desirability of constitution of the larger bench. The petitioner has asked the court to highlight the ambit, scope of powers and authority of "Governor" as per article 101 of the constitution and that of "Acting Governor" as per article 104 of the constitution. The provisions of Article 261 of the Constitution as also the definition clause relating to "Governor" in article 260 has also been cited by the petitioner's counsel Ch Fawad. The full bench observed, "the questions arising as to the scope and extent of powers, jurisdiction and authority of "Acting Governor" with reference to the various provisions in the constitution undoubtedly are of substantial significance and need deeper consideration." Now the petition will be taken up by the bench in the first week of March. The bench was comprised Chief Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq, Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Justice Syed Hamid Ali Shah. The petitioner submitted that the governor Punjab on December 6 had gone abroad on a three days personal visit and the president of Pakistan appointed Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal as the acting governor. He said the post of acting governor is created in case of absence of the governor and the nature of the job is just the stopgap arrangement to perform the day-to-day functions of the government. So far as the policy matter as well as the appointments on key posts in the province by the concerned acting governor were not authorised to perform such functions. The petitioner pleaded that Rana Iqbal flagrantly violated his mandate during his brief stint as the acting governor and made certain illegal and unauthorised appointments including the appointments of Justice (r) Jahangir Arshad as chairman services tribunal Punjab and Khalid Mehmood as ombudsman Punjab. The PPP leader stated that the said appointments clearly amount to overstepping the authority and use of the power that does not vest with him. The petitioner said that the appointments of chairman PST and ombudsman are unconstitutional, illegal and based on fraudulent and colourable procedure. The petitioner prayed to the court to declare the appointments of chairman PST and Punjab ombudsman as unconstitutional as they (chairman & ombudsman) had no authority to hold their offices.