January 9, 2003	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 5, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 8: The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed former minister Javed Jabbar to amend his constitutional petition as he wanted to challenge the legality of the Legal Framework Order.

Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a member of the five-judge bench, observed that the issue of legalization after Oct 12, 2002 needed to be looked into.

The bench is hearing two constitutional petitions against the law which bars those politicians to vie for Senate elections who were defeated in recent general elections.

The bench allowed Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, counsel for Mr Jabbar to amend the petition. The counsel said he wanted to challenge the Legal Framework Order which, to him, had no status unless it was validated by parliament.

The counsel pointed out that under the LFO, elections to the Senate were to be held on Nov 12. Due to non-existence of the Senate, he added, parliament was not complete and thus no legalization could be done.

Mr Pirzada stated that he would like to bring the LFO under discussion, and for that purpose, he would like to amend his petition. The court allowed him to amend it.

The counsel further said that the time had come to revisit the judgment under which the military takeover was validated three years ago.

He said that time had come to see what the military government was saying at the time of seeking validation of it rule from the Supreme Court, and what it was doing now.

Elaborating, he said national institutions were being destroyed through horse-trading. He said he had information that Senate elections would again be postponed.

Qazi Muhammad Jamil, counsel for Mr Khattak, said he did not want to amend his petition, and he should be allowed to argue the case.

The attorney-general would present a copy of the revised schedule for Senate elections on Thursday.

Mr Khattak has also questioned the right of the military rule to legislate after the expiry of three years period.

The apex court, he argued, had given three years to the military government, from Oct 12, 1999 to Oct 12, 2002 for the attainment of its objectives.