LAHORE, Sept 9: Justice M Javed Buttar of the Lahore High Court on Monday asked Pakistan Lawyers Federation Counsel A.K.Dogar to withdraw or amend his writ petition challenging the validity of the Legal Framework Order.

The learned judge gave the option to the counsel when he contended during his arguments on his writ petition that the government had lost its validity the day it announced its election schedule violating the Supreme Court judgments in the Zafar Ali Shah and Wasim Sajjad cases.

The judge told the counsel that his petition required withdrawal or amendment in view of his contention that the government had lost its legitimacy. He asked him whether he would withdraw or amend the petition.

The lawyer opted for the second alternative, informing the court that he would file an amended petition tomorrow.

The court will resume the hearing of the case on Wednesday (tomorrow).

Earlier, the counsel submitted that the three-year timeframe allowed by the Supreme Court to the present government was conditional with the holding of the general elections and transfer of power to the elected representatives of the people.

He said that Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf had accepted the responsibility to abide by the three-year timeframe and hand over power to the elected representatives of people at a press conference at Islamabad on May 25, 2000.

The chief executive had also talked of a possible fluctuation in the timeframe at the press conference, saying that “we will see it afterwards”. This was an indication of a possible deviation from the timeframe, observed the counsel.

He submitted that the timeframe for holding the general elections and transferring power to the elected representatives had been mentioned in the Supreme Court judgments four times and it had been clearly stated that the holding of the elections within the timeframe was the condition for the validation of the government.

He submitted that the process of elections to the provincial assemblies, the National Assembly and the Senate was required to be completed by Oct 12, 2002, in accordance with the three years timeframe given by the Supreme Court.

The government violated the three years timeframe given to it by the Supreme Court and lost its legitimacy the day it announced its election schedule fixing the date of Senate elections on November, 2002.