LAHORE, Sept 12: The immunity allowed under Article 248 of the Constitution could not be extended to the illegal and unconstitutional acts of the president, Pakistan Lawyers Forum’s counsel A.K. Dogar contended before Justice M. Ijaz Buttar on Thursday.

He was answering the objections raised by the LHC Registrar in respect of the admissibility of the contempt of court petition filed by him against President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Dogar has accused Gen Musharraf of violating the three years timeframe given by the Supreme Court in Zafar Ali Shah and Waseem Sajjad cases judgments for holding general elections and transfer of power to civilians by fixing the Senate elections date on Nov 12, 2002.

He submitted that the objections were merely administrative in nature as the apex court had already decided the matter.

He submitted that the president and the governors were not immune from the contempt proceedings under the law.

Citing Supreme Court judgments in Chaudhry Zahir Elahi vs Z.A. Bhutto case (1975) and Masroor Ahsan vs Ardsher Cowasjee case (1998), he pleaded for the admission of the case for regular hearing.

The case was not a mere matter of contempt but a case for the enforcement of the Supreme Court judgments in Zafar Ali Shah and Waseem Sajjad cases.

Contempt, he submitted, was the only vehicle available with the courts to get their orders enforced. The judicial system would collapse if the orders of the courts were not implemented.

Justice Buttar adjourned till Nov 16 the preliminary hearing of the case fixed before him as an objection petition with the observation that it concerned a serious and important matter and he wanted to hear the counsel at length in the presence of the Deputy Attorney-General.