25 June 2004	Friday	06 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, June 24: A division bench of the Lahore High Court dismissed on Thursday an intra-court appeal of the Pakistan Lawyers Forum, saying the court had no jurisdiction over the armed forces to decree that army officers could be tried by accountability courts in case they were accused of possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Upholding the objection of its registrar office that the constitutional petition was not maintainable, the court dismissed the appeal against the June 14 judgement of a single bench.

The petition, moved through Advocate AK Dogar, sought appointment of a high powered judicial commission to probe the assets of a number of senior officers of the armed forces, including President Gen Pervez Musharraf, with the purpose of recovering the money that the public exchequer lost because of the officers' purchase of land at a price much lower than the market rate.

The petition, filed in 2003, submitted that 111 army officers allegedly got 400 plots in Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan districts (Cholistan) at a price of Rs47.50 per kanal while the price of land in the open market at the time ranged between Rs15,000 and 20,000 a kanal.

It alleged that President Gen Pervez Musharraf, the then interior minister Syed Moinudin Haider, the then Chairman of the Joint Staff Committee Gen Abdul Aziz and Punjab Governor Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool were among the beneficiaries. The petition also made more such allegations against a number of other officers of the armed forces.

Arguing for withdrawal of the objections, Mr Dogar cited the Benazir Bhutto case (PLD-1988/SC-416) and the Asfandyar Wali case (PLD-2001/SC-607) while submitting that any person could move superior courts for enforcement of fundamental rights of a class of persons.

He quoted the Supreme Court as saying in the Asfandyar case: "It is wrong to assume that members of the armed forces are immune from accountability. Admittedly, they are subject to accountability in accordance with methodology as laid down in the act (on accountability) and rules made thereunder."

The PLF filed the petition on Aug 1, 2003. The registrar office returned the petition with the objection that no matter related to the armed forces was subject to review by the Lahore High Court.

Counsel Dogar refiled the petition with the plea that superior courts had the jurisdiction to adjudicate on such issues. The counsel also took a position that the court and not the registrar office had the power to decide whether or not issues related to the armed forces could be reviewed.

He stated that by raising the objection, the office had virtually passed a judicial order. The petition continued shuttling between the office and the PLF counsel with both parties sticking to their respective points of view.

The office, however, fixed the writ petition as an objection petition which was taken up for the first time by the LHC division bench comprising Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmad and Justice Farrukh Latif on June 9.

Mr Dogar submitted that superior courts had the jurisdiction to adjudicate in matters related to corruption by public servants under Sections 27, 40, 42 and 47 of the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance-1999 and award rigorous imprisonment to convicts.