LAHORE, Dec 3: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday sought the attorney-general’s assistance on a legal point as to whether the LHC had the jurisdiction to hear a matter that was also subjudice in the Supreme Court.

The bench was hearing Advocate A. K. Dogar’s arguments on a Pakistan Lawyers Forum’s petition against the Legal Framework Order (LFO).

Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jilani and Justice Raja Mohammad Sabir were told that a similar petition of Wattan Party had been dismissed by the SC. Mr Dogar submitted that another petition of a similar nature was still being heard by the SC, but he could not remember its title.

Mr Dogar submitted that a single LHC bench had directed him to move the SC, saying that an LHC judgment on a matter also referred to the SC would amount to challenging the latter’s jurisdiction.

The petitioner argued that Article 187(2) of the Constitution authorised all the high courts to interpret and execute the judgments passed by the SC and also to proceed with a matter referred to the SC simultaneously.

He cited a 1975 judgment of SC’s Justice Hamoodur Rehman, saying that whenever a petition was filed in a high court and the SC simultaneously, the matter should first be decided by the former so that the latter could review the judgment.

The bench in its short order observed that according to the petitioner, the mandate of Article 187(2) of the Constitution had not been appreciated fully by the single bench while dismissing the petition.

The court also directed the attorney-general to update it on the petitioner’s argument that the LFO was violative of the SC judgment in the Zafar Ali Shah case.

The petition was based on the argument that in the Zafar Ali Shah case, the SC had authorised the Musharraf regime to amend the law for administrative purposes only within a three-year timeframe.

According to the petitioner, those amendments were supposed to be temporary and effective only until Oct 12, 2002. There was thus no way the LFO could be made a permanent part of the Constitution.