LHC adjourns hearing of petition by parliamentarians

LAHORE – A full bench of Lahore High Court on Wednesday adjourned hearing on dozens of writ petitions filed by 26 members of provincial and national assembly for dismissal of petition challenging their qualification.
Earlier a deputy attorney general started his arguments and said that after the abolition of graduation condition these petitions had become ineffective. He further said that the Supreme Court had already held that the election commission was the first appropriate forum to avail such remedy.
As the arguments of DAG were in progress the bench headed by chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry adjourned further hearing for Thursday (today). MPAs and MNAs in their petitions raised the issue that under article 225 of the constitution their qualification could be questioned only through an election petition within a stipulated time.
But in the instant cases their eligibility have been challenged through writ petitions. They pointed out that the courts have entertained petition against them in violation of constitution. The MNAs and MPAs facing eligibility question include Farooq Yousaf Ghurki, Mian Javed Latif, Malik Riaz, Safdar Hussain Gill, Mina Muhammad Azam Chailla, Raza Zahid Hussain, Liaquat Ali Bhatti, Khalid Hussain, Shafiq Gujar.
The full bench headed by chief justice Ijaz Ahmed chaudhry is hearing the identical petitions to first of all decide the basic fact of law whether the election petitions in hand should be heard by the LHC regular bench or by election tribunal of LHC or by election commission. It is hoped tjat the bench will give its decision on the issue on Thursday.
If the bench accepted the argument that LHC can not hear election matter directly then petitions will be returned to election tribunal comprising LHC judge or election commission which will be asked to hear the same. In the case election tribunal (of LHC) hears the petition then (MNAs, MPAs) get some time as they get one chance of appeal before LHC but if LHC hears the same they loose the chance of appeal.
However if LHC as election tribunal may hear the cases they may appeal before LHC because LHC tribunal is not deemed to be LHC though it has LHC judge.