PESHAWAR, Feb 22: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday reserved its order over maintainability of a writ petition challenging the signing of a bill by the acting president enabling General Pervez Musharraf to retain two offices.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Ijaz Afzal reserved the order after completion of arguments by the petitioner, Shahid Orakzai, who contended that an acting president had no authority to sign a bill passed by parliament.

The bench would now decide whether the petitioner is an aggrieved party in accordance with Article 199 of the constitution. The bench inquired from Mr Orakzai whether he had any cause of action to move the court. The bench further inquired the petitioner how could he be an aggrieved person?

Mr Orakzai said the entire country had been affected with the signing of the bill enabling Gen Musharraf to continue holding the offices of the president and that of the army chief. He added that it was the right of every citizen to challenge the violation of a constitutional obligation.

Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro had signed the bill on Nov 30, 2004, in his capacity as acting president when President Musharraf was out of the country. The bill had been passed by the National Assembly and the Senate on Oct 14 and on Nov 1, 2004, respectively.

Mr Orakzai said the acting president was a stop-gap arrangement for carrying out day-to-day functions of the president and he could not perform constitutional duties of the president. He argued that there was a difference between functions and duties of the president.

The petitioner referred to Article 49(1), arguing that an acting president could only perform the duties of the president under three circumstances: if the president resigns from his office; if he is removed from his office; or, the president dies.

He contended that in case the president was out of the country and the Senate chairman performed as acting president under Article 49(2) of the Constitution then he could only perform day-to-day functions of the president and not his constitutional duties.