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LAHORE, Nov 28: The chief justice of the Lahore High Court on Thursday constituted a division bench to hear a petition against presidential referendum filed by the Pakistan Lawyers Forum.
The bench comprises justices Tassadaq Husain Jilani and Asif Saeed Khosa.
The petition was earlier admitted to hearing by a single judge but the state requested him to transfer the petition to a larger bench. The judge, however, referred the matter to the chief justice, saying he was the authority to decide about it.
The chief justice, who had heard Deputy Attorney-General Sher Zaman Khan the other day, heard petitioner-lawyer A. K. Dogar in his chamber on Thursday after which he announced the constitution of the bench.
The petitioner opposed the state request, saying a larger bench could not be constituted once the petition had been admitted and two hearings had already been held.
He alleged that the state feared that the judge would give a decision against it and thus had interfered into the matter by requesting for formation of a larger bench.
The petition says that the referendum held on April 30 should be declared void since massive rigging had taken place during its conduct.
ADJOURNED: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing of an intra-court appeal challenging the Legal Framework Order (LFO) till Dec 3.
Petitioner A.K. Dogar resumed his arguments on a query made by the bench regarding the mandate given to Gen Pervez Musharraf by the Supreme Court in May, 2000, for amending the constitution.
He argued that the Supreme Court could not authorize a person to amend the constitution and the amendments were effective within a transitional period of three years starting from Oct 12, 1999.
In the appeal, it had been said the LFO was an extra-constitutional act and could not be made a part of the Constitution by the government on the pretext that Supreme Court had given a legal mandate for the purpose.
