A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday deferred to February 21 hearing of a petition challenging remission in sentence of Interior Minister Rehman Malik awarded by President Asif Ali Zardari, as petitioner counsel sought adjournment.
The bench earlier directed the law officer and the petitioner counsel to come up with final arguments on the point whether the President of Pakistan rightly exercised his power while granting remission.
Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, media advisor of Save Judiciary Committee (SJC), had moved this petition. The petitioner counsel submitted that LHC had restored the sentence earlier awarded to him by accountability court and Rehman Malik instead of filing appeal against it in Supreme Court directly approached the President.
He said that the remission granted by the president was unlawful. He asserted that the remission had been made in violation of the set procedure under the constitution. The counsel said Rehman Malik bypassed judicial procedure and president pardoned the sentence of Rehman Malik on political basis, making a mockery of the judicial system.