The Lahore High Court (LHC) adjourned till February 15 the proceedings in connection with a petition challenging the restriction on any public representative for holding office third time, especially, the office of prime minister and a chief minister. On December 4 Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa had admitted the petition for regular hearing and referred the petition to Chief Justice for formation of a larger bench.

On Monday the court was informed that the larger bench had not been constituted yet and the court adjourned hearing. The court, however, asked the petitioner to wait for the constitution of larger bench till February 15 otherwise the single bench would start hearing on the petition.

Petitioner Tariq Aziz Malik submitted that the restriction was imposed through chief executive order 19 of 2002, which was against the constitutional right of a person to take part in the election. He said that article 62 and 63 had not imposed any restriction of third time election and this constitutional right could not be taken away through an executive order. He prayed to the court to declare the chief executive order 19 as null and void.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010