Prime Minister's third term: LHC bench to hear constitutional petition on February 15

Chief Justice Lahore High Court (LHC) here Wednesday constituted a five-member bench that will start hearing on February 15 a constitutional petition challenging the restriction on any public representative from holding for third time prime minister or a chief minister.
The bench is headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar while other members are: Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhary, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Umar Ata Bandial. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa had already admitted the petition for regular hearing on December 4 and had issued notice to Attorney General of Pakistan.
The Judge had also referred the case to Chief Justice to constitute a larger bench to decide the matter which has now been formed by Chief Justice after a delay of more than two months. Advocate Tariq Aziz Malik submitted in his petition that this restriction was imposed through chief executive order 19 of 2002.
It had laid down that any person who had already held the office of prime minister or chief minister twice should not be qualified to hold the office of prime minister or chief minister for third time. He said it was against the constitutional right of a person to take part in the election. He prayed to the court to declare the chief executive order 19 as null and void.