LAHORE – A three-member Lahore High Court (LHC) bench on Monday directed the attorney general (AG) to submit the federal government’s reply until March 10 on a petition challenging remission granted to Interior Minister Senator Rehman Malik by President Asif Ali Zardari.
Save Judiciary Committee Media Advisor Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi filed the petition submitting that the president misused his powers under Article 45 of the constitution to pardon Malik.
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the LHC had restored the three-year sentence awarded to the interior minister by an accountability court but Malik instead of filing an appeal against it in the Supreme Court (SC), which could have provided him relief, directly approached Zardari for ensuring a presidential pardon.
He said that the president pardoned the minister by exercising his powers, which he could not until the SC upheld the LHC judgment. He accused the president of violating the set procedure for granting remissions. The petitioner’s counsel requested the court to nullify the presidential pardon and restore the interior minister’s conviction.
