LAHORE, Oct 9: The Lahore High Court office refused for the second consecutive time on Thursday to mark Pakistan Lawyers Forum’s petition on technical grounds, through which it had sought review of the court observation that it could not hear cases against the army generals.
Justice Raja Mohammed Sabir made an observation while upholding the LHC’s earlier objection to a PLF petition, seeking the army generals’ probe on charges of misusing of public funds and receiving kickbacks in defence deals.
The office had refused to mark this petition for a regular hearing, saying the court could not question the actions of the army generals, including President Pervez Musharraf, as mentioned in Article 199 (3) of the 1973 Constitution. “The observation had been upheld by the court while hearing the objection petition.”
This time the LHC office raised the point that since its earlier objection had already been upheld by the court, the review petition was not maintainable.
PLF President A K Dogar, however, differed here and said the court had upheld the earlier objection while acting as an administrative court instead of using its constitutional jurisdiction. So this decision of the court must be reviewed, he added.
The objection that the LHC did not have the jurisdiction to hear cases against the army generals was a question involving constitutional matter, which could be upheld by the court only by using its constitutional jurisdiction, not as an administrative court, the petitioner argued while filing the review petition afresh with a request to the office to mark it for regular hearing.
The original petition sought setting up of a judicial inquiry commission, comprising the SC judges with unblemished repute, opposition leader and the Pakistan Bar Council’s president and secretary-general, to initiate investigation against all the army generals who assumed power from 1958 to 1999 on the charges of plundering money.
It was further prayed that during the pendency of this petition — Gen Pervez Musharraf, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Aziz, Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool, former interior minister Moinuddin Haider, Lt-Gen Muzaffar Usmani (retired) and Lt-Gen Muhammad Afzal Janjua (retired) — be restrained from alienating their assets so as to avoid the judicial probe to be made by the commission.