PM contempt: LHC requested to restrain Gilani from holding office

Petitions filed in Lahore High Court seek explanation from Gilani for holding office after being convicted.

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has been requested to restrain Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani from holding his office and to seek an explanation from him that under what law is he still claiming to be the chief executive of Pakistan.

Two identical writ petitions were filed in the LHC on similar grounds. Pakistan Tehrik-e-Inqilab chairman Rana Ilamudin Ghazi and Advocate Shahid Naseem Gondal filed the petitions through their counsel AK Dogar.

The petitioners submitted that the respondent, Prime Minister Gilani, was punished with imprisonment by the Supreme Court after being found guilty of contempt of court.

They contended that the respondent, by view of the conviction handed to him, ceased to be the prime minister the moment sentence was pronounced under Article 204(2) of the Constitution, but, they added that Gilani is still claiming to hold the office.

Therefore, under Article 199(1)(b) of the Constitution, the respondent was liable to be required to show under what authority of law he was claiming to hold the office of the prime minister, the petitioners argued.

The petitioners also referred to a case reported in PLD 1963 SC 486(506) Faazalul Qadar Chaudhry vs M Abdul Haq wherein the court held, “Examined in that state, it is clear from clause (1) of article 204 that the Constitution regards the assumption of an office of profit in the service of Pakistan as a fact capable of instead proof, requiring no ascertainment by any fact finding process and accordingly, this clause lays down a rule of automatic application, that a person assuming such an office of profit should forthwith cease to be a member of an assembly. In such a case there would naturally be no need whatsoever for the matter to be referred to the chief election commissioner.”

They stated that on the rule of automatic application, the respondent had ceased to hold the office and provisions of Article 63(2) and (3) were irrelevant. They prayed that Gilani be asked to show under what law he claimed to hold the office of the prime minister and he should be restrained from acting as the prime minister and misusing the facilities connected with the office.

Notice sent to Gilani for ‘illegally’ holding office

Advocate Muhammad Azhad Siddique on Saturday sent a legal notice to Gilani for allegedly illegally continuing to function as the prime minister.

He stated that after conviction in the contempt case, he was no more the prime minister of the country and requested him to leave this office if he desired to honour the provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 that was formed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

He said that in case Gilani prefers to continue, then he would be forced to apply to the court of competent jurisdiction to take appropriate action for violating the court orders and the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973.