June 17, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 12, 1429

LAHORE, June 16: The Punjab Assembly speaker and the provincial government have asked a full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) through two separate applications not to proceed against Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a petition seeking his disqualification.

The bench consisting of Justice Fazal-i-Miran Chauhan, Justice Hasnat Ahmad Khan and Justice Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon issued notices to petitioner in the applications and set June 18 as next date of hearing.

Advocate Akram Sheikh is representing the Punjab Assembly speaker while Khwaja Haris is representing the Punjab government

Sheikh said the petition was not maintainable and merits dismissal because the petitioner, Syed Khurram Shah, neither has any cause of action nor any locus standi to invoke jurisdiction of this court.

“He is neither a candidate nor a voter in the constituency in question and none of his personal/legal rights are being infringed,” he added.

He said Sharif was duly notified as returned candidate, unanimously elected leader of the house and after taking oath on June 8, assumed the office of the leader of the house of the Punjab Assembly.

“That the matter of qualification and disqualification primarily is an issue concerning procedure of the Punjab Assembly in terms of Article 69(2) read with Article 127 of the Constitution, which provides that ‘no officer or member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) in whom powers are vested by or under the Constitution for… the conduct of the business… shall be subject to jurisdiction of any court in respect of the exercise by him of those powers.” It has consistently been held by this Honourable Court that the issue pertaining to proceedings of a house and the qualifications or disqualifications are absolutely an internal matter which the Parliament in its own wisdom decided to delegate to an Election Tribunal in terms of Article 225 of the Constitution, he said.

He added as a speaker and custodian of the house of which Sharif had been elected as leader, and in that capacity as the chief executive of the province of Punjab, craves indulgence of this court for impleading him as a party before proceeding any further with the matter.

Haris said any decision of the court would have a bearing over the working of the Punjab government being headed by Chief Minister Sharif. He added in this view of the matter the court had been asked to make the government a party in the petition.