LAHORE – A four-member full bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday reserved judgment in petitions challenging President Asif Ali Zardari’s dual office.
The petitions were filed by Advocate AK Dogar from the Pakistan Lawyers Forum (PLF), Engineer Ghulam Jillani and Advocate Asif Mehmood Khan. The petitioners sought Zardari’s disqualification on the grounds that he, being state president, could not hold office as co-Pakistan People’s Party’s co-chairman. The court conducted ex-party proceedings in the constitutional petitions with legal assistance of amicus curie after President Zardari’s lawyers boycotted proceedings about eight months ago in 2010.
The bench comprised LHC Chief justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan. Senior lawyer Abid Hasan Manto assisted the court as amicus curie so that the court may do justice in the case even in the absence of Zardari’s lawyers. Manto told the court that the constitution of Pakistan did not restrain president from heading office of co-chairman of his party as co-chairman if he maintained impartiality as president of Pakistan and head of the state.
