Presidential pardon: Court gives federal government last chance to respond

Reply to a petition challenging remission in Rehman Malik’s sentence by President Asif Ali Zardari sought.

LAHORE: A full bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday gave the federal government one last chance to file their reply by March 10 to a petition challenging remission in Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s sentence by President Asif Ali Zardari.

The bench had been awaiting a reply to the petition from the government for a few months. The bench had asked the deputy attorney general (DAG) to admit the petition for a regular hearing and then ordered the respondents to reply. The DAG had later requested the court for a last chance to file the reply.

Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, media advisor of the Save Judiciary Committee, had moved the petition contending that the president had wrongly exercised his powers under Article 45 of the Constitution by remitting Malik’s sentence.

The petitioner’s counsel said that the president pardoned Malik by unlawfully exercising his powers. The president, he said, could not pardon Malik before he had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.  Malik, he said, had bypassed the judicial procedure by getting a president pardon.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2011.