Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Monday declined to hear a petition seeking implementation of the LHC’s full bench order in which President Asif Ali Zardari was asked to relinquish the office of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman and not use the Presidency for political activities. Bandial observed that a full bench had passed the order on May 12 due to which the petition seeking implementation of the order should also be heard by a full bench in the interest of justice.
The judge remarked that he was part of the five-member full bench, which passed the order, so it will be appropriate if the matter was placed before some other bench. Bandial referred the matter to the LHC chief justice (CJ) with a suggestion to place the petition before a full bench for further hearing. The petition sought Zardari’s disqualification for not abiding by the order and continuing to hold his political office and using the Presidency for political purposes. Ilmuddin Ghazi filed the petition through his counsel, AK Dogar. He also sought the court’s orders for halting the use of government resources for the personal and political purposes of the president.
