Full bench, headed by Chief Justice Lahore High Court (LHC) Sayed Zahid Hussain here on Wednesday directed federal and provincial governments to submit their replies in identical petitions filed against the "Governor rule" in Punjab and also adjourned the proceedings to March 27.
Earlier, Deputy Attorney General of Pakistan and Advocate General of Punjab made joint request for the adjournment, enabling them to file reply which was opposed by the petitioners counsel. The bench, however, observed keeping in view the implications and importance of the matter said, we do not want to linger on the matter for long but the same time we do not intend to deprive any party of having fair opportunity of hearing either.
The bench therefore adjourned the matter to March 27 and directed the respondents to file their replies with an advance copy to the counsel for the petitioners. The full bench is comprised of Chief Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Nasim Sikandar, Justice Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry and Justice Fazal-e-Miran Chauhan.
It may be mentioned that a single bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had issued admit notices to respondents and referred to CJ for the formation of a larger bench. The CJ had constituted a five-member full bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq, Justice Nasim Sikandar and Justice Muhammad Khalid Alvi but one of the judges sitting in the full bench was not available at Principal Seat Lahore and the petitioners had filed an application for the early hearing of their petitions. Resultantly, CJ reconstituted the full bench comprising of available senior judges of the high court.
However, senior most judge of the LHC Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, recently restored, had refused to sit in the full bench due to some personal reasons. The petitioners Malik Tariq Aziz and Zahid Malik in their petitions had collectively taken pleas that the proclamation order was based on no material as mandated by the constitution because the order only relies on the sole ground of the Supreme Court by which the chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif was disqualified from assemblys membership.
They pleaded the governor should have convened the session of assembly to provide it opportunity to elect new leader of the house. They said Governors Rule had been imposed to undertake horse-trading or by deployment of other means take-over the Punjab government. They prayed to the court to declare that governor rule is invalid and unlawful.
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