The full bench, headed by Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, will resume hearing in the first week of July. The president had issued a notification pardoning Malik against conviction for not appearing before the accountability court in two corruption references against him.
On May 27, a single bench of the LHC had admitted the petition for regular hearing and referred it to the chief justice to constitute a larger bench to adjudicate. Imtiaz Rasheed Qureshi, media coordinator of the Save Judicial Committee, had challenged the notification. The petitioner’s counsel Barrister Farooq Hasan submitted that presidential reprieve was granted to an accused only when he or someone on his behalf had exhausted all other legal remedies.
He submitted that if someone was convicted in any court, he had the right to file an appeal against his sentence in the Supreme Court (SC) but if his appeal was not heard in the apex court or a decision was given against him, then he could file for mercy. He stated that the minister had not approached the SC or filed a mercy petition and that there was no justification for this remission. He requested to set aside the president’s order and restore Malik’s sentence immediately.
Malik had already filed his written reply to the petition, in which he stated said that the president granted him pardon on his mercy appeal. He said that the ministry of law, through its law division, had moved the summary for his pardon to the prime minister. He stated that the prime minister had advised the president to grant Malik pardon and the president had exercised his constitutional powers.
Published in the Express Tribune, June 17th, 2010.
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