The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday adjourned until August a petition challenging President Asif Ali Zardari holding dual offices.
A larger bench of the SHC, headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justices Gulzar Ahmed and Maqbool Baqar, also ordered conducting hearing of the petition on daily basis so the attorney-general of Pakistan (AGP) could defend the president.
In the previous hearing, the court had issued a show-cause notice to the AGP for failing to show up at the hearing.
Hearing the constitutional petition filed by Advocate Rasheed Ahmad Akhund, the deputy AGP requested for more time on Monday and submitted a written statement of the AGP, following which the court allowed his plea for adjournment.
According to the AGP’s statement, the case of the president’s dual offices could be proceeded only at the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the SHC has no power in this regard.
Akhund had moved the petition urging the court to affirm that Zardari could not hold two offices and he has been violating the Constitution by misusing and exceeding his powers.
He said that the president must resign from the position of the head of the state or from the position of the chief of the Pakistan People’s Party.
He added that according to the Constitution, the prime minister and the cabinet have complete powers for running the government’s affairs, but the president has the same powers and is unwilling to transfer them to the elected cabinet.
The president, the Senate chairman, the National Assembly speaker, the Law minister, the Law secretary, the Parliamentary Affairs secretary and the Establishment Division among others had been cited as respondents.
