The Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Friday adjourned to December 5 the hearing of a petition filed by Jamaat-i-Islami challenging political office of President Asif Ali Zardari. The court asked the petitioner counsel to submit his arguments on the point as to how President could be disqualified invoking Article 63 of the Constitution and Asghar Khan's verdict if he was not eligible at the time of his nominations for the election of President.

The petitioner also sought disqualification of president Zardari in the light of Supreme Court's judgement in Asghar Khan's case. Earlier the court heard arguments of the petitioner's counsel on the maintainability of the petition. A.K Dogar in his arguments said the President from day one had been persistently carrying on political activities as head of state as well as head of a political party.

He said a full bench of the LHC had on May 12, 2011 directed the President to disassociate himself from the office of political party at the earliest but he had been consistently committing disobedience of the order as well as of the Constitution. The counsel urged the court to declare that the respondent Zardari as head of a political party was not qualified at the time of his nominations for election of the President.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2012