ISLAMABAD, Feb 11: The Supreme Court will take up a set of petitions on February 24 challenging the President to Hold Two Offices Bill 2004 and the Seventeenth Constitutional Amendment, an official source told Dawn.
Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui will lead the bench which will hear six petitions pending for quite some time. Two of the petitions have been moved by Pakistan Lawyers' Forum President A.K. Dogar Advocate, challenging the vires of the seventeenth constitutional amendment and the dual offices bill.
The rest of the petitions have been filed one each by Habib Wahabul Khairi of Al-Jihad Trust, Communist Party of Pakistan chief Engineer Jamil Ahmed Malik, Watan Party, and Maulvi Syed Iqbal Haider of Awami Himayat Tehrik.
Mr Dogar on January 31 had written to the chief justice requesting him to fix his petitions as early as possible. In his January 10 petition against the dual offices bill, he contended that Article 63 (1-d) of the Constitution had become operational after December 31.
Article 63 (1-d) deals with the dis-qualifications of members of parliament and says: A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as a member of parliament if he holds an office of profit in the service of Pakistan other than an office declared by law not to disqualify its holder.
The post of the army chief is an office of profit, therefore a person who is disqualified to become a member of parliament could not be elected as president of the country, he stated.
Similarly, Jameel Ahmad Malik had requested the Supreme Court to declare as invalid the assent to the dual offices bill by Acting President Mohammed mian Soomro, empowering President Musharraf to also retain the office of the army chief beyond December 31.
Maulvi Haider is the only petitioner who has favoured the Dual Offices Bill as, according to him, geo-political situation demands that Gen Musharraf should keep his uniform to ensure continuity of reforms in the country.
