LAHORE: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah will take up on Thursday (tomorrow) a petition challenging the National Assembly speaker’s act of dismissing a reference moved by Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party for disqualification of the prime minister over Panama Leaks.

Sardar Umar Farooq, a member of the party established by former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, filed the petition.

The petitioner contends that the speaker did not cite any reason for dismissing the reference filed under Article 63 (2) of the Constitution.

He pleads that the speakers’ office did not enjoy judicial powers as he (speaker) was supposed to forward the reference to Election Commission after a bare perusal.

However, he said, the speaker acted beyond his powers and dismissed the reference.

The petitioner asked the court to set aside the speaker’s decision and order him to forward the reference to ECP accordingly.

Published in Dawn October 5th, 2016