LHC adjourns hearing of president’s contempt case until December 5

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of a contempt case against President Asif Ali Zardari for holding dual offices and continuing political activities despite court orders.
A five-member LHC bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial adjourned the hearing of the case until December 5 on the request of the federation’s lawyer Waseem Sajjad.
Accepting the request, the LHC chief justice adjourned the hearing and remarked that there would be no delay afterwards, and that the case would be heard on daily basis. He further said that after the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Asghar Khan case, the court would hear arguments by relevant parties regarding the president’s immunity under Article 248, after which contempt proceedings would be initiated. The SC had ruled that the president’s office comes under the Service of Pakistan therefore constitutionally it ought to be apolitical.
Moreover, the details of president’s recent visit to Malikwal and the record of the press releases issued by the presidency have also been annexed with a fresh application filed in the LHC by Azhar Siddique.
Details show that the petition on president’s dual offices was filed in the LHC, and was taken up by the court; however, the government, with Babar Awan as its then legal advisor, did not pay heed to this important case and did not pursue it. Therefore, the court gave an ex-parte judgement against the president, telling him not to hold dual offices.
The judgement was not challenged by the government therefore it attained finality. A petition was filed in the LHC, calling for the implementation of court judgement. The petition has now been turned into a contempt of court case against the president. When the case became hard to ignore for the president, the federation appointed Waseem Sajjad to represent it in the LHC, while taking shelter behind the immunity clause to protect the president.
Sajjad had also moved an application in the court that he could not attend the case proceedings on Wednesday. Petitioner Azhar Siddique told that the contempt proceedings were suo-genus in nature therefore no one had immunity in it. He mentioned that two offences, contempt and high treason, had been mentioned in the constitution because of their severity.