LAHORE, Nov 6: The Legal Framework Order, 2002, is a self-validating piece of legislation which has suppressed the 1973 Constitution and created a new one in its place and validated it.

Pakistan Lawyers Forum Counsel A.K.Dogar made the submission while offering rebuttal to Deputy Attorney-General Sher Zaman Khan’s reply to his arguments on his writ petition challenging the validity of the LFO before Mr.Justice Muhammad Saeed Akhtar of the Lahore High Court here on Wednesday.

He submitted that the LFO was in fact ‘a constitutional framework order’ with an over-riding effect through which all the actions and laws promulgated by Gen Pervez Musharraf during his rule had been validated “not withstanding anything contained in the Constitution”.

He submitted that the deputy attorney-general had wrongly stated that the parliament could examine the LFO for validation. All the constitutional amendmenets required validation by the parliament in the democratic countries but the phrase “notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution” contained in the LFO meant that it stood validated on its own and was not required to be validated by parliament.

He submitted that the Supreme Court had observed in its judgment in the Zafar Ali Shah case that the 1973 Constitution was intact and was the supreme law of the land but only some parts of it had been held in abeyance. He said that the apex court should have specified the parts of Constitution held in abeyance to eliminate chances of unwarranted legislation on the account of ambiguity in this regard.

He submitted that the DAG had wrongly stated that the amendmenets to the Constitution was a political question. The Supreme Court had ruled to the contrary in the judgments in the Wokala Mahaz case and Sheikh Liaquat Hussain case.

He submitted that some countries in the world had written constitutions while some others had no written constitution. Pakistan was a country where the Holy Quran and Sunnat was the supreme law of the land. Not only the Holy Quran and Sunnat did not approve of seizure of power by force but the Supreme Court had also clearly observed in its judgment in the Nusrat Bhutto case in 1977 that no one could be validated only for having usurped the power.

The counsel will continue his arguments on Thursday (today).