President’s pension: Attorney general issued notice on Tarar’s plea

Ex-president wants pension increased, Musharraf erased from record.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday issued a notice to the Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) for May 18 on a petition seeking orders to remove all references in public record to Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan.

The petition has been filed by former president Muhammad Rafiq Tarar who says that Musharraf was an ‘unconstitutional president’.

Tarar has asked the court to declare him president during Gen (retired) Pervez Musharraf’s tenure and enhance his pension benefits.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed passed the orders on Tuesday after hearing arguments of Abid Hasan Minto, counsel for Tarar, who submitted that he (petitioner) was entitled to receive salary from December 1, 2001 to September 8, 2009, at the rate of 132.5 per cent of salary payable to Chief Justice of Pakistan. He said arrears for the period should be paid to some welfare organisations.

The petitioner’s counsel, referring to the Supreme Court decision on a Sindh High Court Bar Association petition, said that the petitioner had legally continued to be president of the country till September 8, 2008, when Asif Ali Zardari assumed the office of president.

He asked the court to declare that the petitioner had never resigned from the office and continued as president till Asif Ali Zardari took oath as president. He also requested the court to declare that Musharraf was not entitled to any of the privileges of an elected president.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2011.