President & Politics: Justice Bandial refers petition to CJ

LHC refused to hear a petition claiming President Asif Zardari is defying the court’s verdict in the dual offices case

LAHORE: Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Monday refused to hear a petition claiming that President Asif Zardari is defying the court’s verdict in the dual offices case, on the grounds that he was part of the bench that handed out that verdict. Justice Bandial said that he had referred the petition to the chief justice to send to another judge. Advocate Rana Ilmuddin Ghazi filed the petition through his counsel AK Dogar, contending that the High Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of Zardari’s role as both head of state and chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party was not being implemented. The petitioner said that the court had declared that the president’s involvement in politics, and the use of the Presidency for political activities, was unconstitutional, but Zardari had not withdrawn from political activities and the Presidency continued to be used for political purposes.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2011.