Govt files notification of Malik’s presidential pardon

Petitioner says instead of filing an appeal against the sentence in the Supreme Court, Malik approached the president.

LAHORE: The federal government on Friday produced the notification of the presidential pardon awarded to Interior Minister Rehman Malik before the Lahore High Court.

Justice Azmat Saeed had been demanding a copy of the notification since May 27 on a petition challenging the presidential clemency.

Malik had been awarded a sentence in corruption cases.

The court gave a copy of the notification, submitted by Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik, to the petitioner’s counsel when he said he wanted to study it. The court also allowed the counsel to file a rejoinder to the notification, if he so desired, till November 3, the next date of the hearing.

The petitioner argued that if someone is convicted by a high court he should file an appeal against the sentence in the Supreme Court and if his petition is not heard in the apex court or if a decision is given against him, only then could he file for a presidential pardon.

The petitioner said that the Lahore High Court had restored the sentence earlier awarded to Malik by the accountability court and Malik, instead of filing an appeal against it in the Supreme Court, directly approached the president.

Since the president had exercised his power after the high court judgment, therefore, the remission granted by him was unlawful, the petitioner said.

The petitioner also said that the president’s pardon, on ‘political basis’, makes a mockery of the judicial system.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2010.