Acting president: IHC reserves judgement regarding Sanjrani's appointment

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reserved judgement regarding the appointment of Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani as acting president in the absence of President of Pakistan. A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Aamer Farooq heard the petition and reserved the judgement after hearing arguments of both the sides in this matter. During the hearing, Deputy Attorney General Raja Khalid Mahmood appeared before the court and opposed the petition, saying that there is no mentioning of qualification in the Constitution for appointment of acting president.
He said that the petitioner filed this petition with mala fide intention and Balochistan High Court (BHC) had already given verdict in this connection. Advocate Afzal Khan Shinwari filed the petition through Advocate Iftikhar Bashir, saying that Sanjrani cannot become the acting president of Pakistani because he does not meet the requirements set by the Constitution.
He adopted in his petition that according to Article 49 of the Constitution, the Senate chairman becomes acting president in the absence of the head of state; however, the Article 41 states that the individual needs to be more than 45 years of age.
The petitioner stated that Sanjrani, born in 1978, is 40 years old, and does not fulfil the basic requirement. "Sanjrani is, therefore, not qualified to hold the office of the president even in the acting capacity," contended Shinwari. He further said that on May 15, then President of Pakistan departed to perform Umrah and in his absence, Sanjrani took the seat as acting president until his return.
He maintained that the Senate Secretariat committed "a grave error and an illegality" in appointment of Sanjrani as Senate chairman keeping in mind the Articles of the Constitution. The petitioner said that the office of the president has been "illegally usurped." Therefore, he prayed to the court that May 14 notification issued by the Senate Secretariat be termed as "unconstitutional, illegal and unlawful as well as null and void."