LHC dismisses plea for presidential system

ISLAMABAD:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has dismissed a petition seeking direction to the government for holding referendum for presidential system in the country, saying it is against the basic structure of the constitution.

"The request of the petitioner regarding issuance of a direction by this court for expeditious disposal of his application/request cannot be allowed being not tenable in the eye of law because the writ of mandamus can only be issued, under Article 199 of the constitution, to a person to do, what is required by law to do, while in this case neither proper party has been made to whom a direction can be issued nor the relevant law has been cited by the petitioner under which such direction can be issued and most importantly, the prayer made by the petitioner is against the basic structure of the constitution as discussed above.

This writ petition is, therefore, dismissed being not maintainable," a judgment authored by LHC Judge Justice Jawad Hassan said. The order noted that the petition mentioned holding of a referendum to ascertain and determine the will of the people of the country, which went against the basic structure of the constitution regarding democracy.

The order also said that the federal government exercised powers within the framework provided under the federal rules while the provincial government would exercise powers within
the framework provided under the Punjab Government Rules of Business, 2011.