The bench headed by the Chief Justice made this direction when the counsel for federation, Wasim Sajjad, concluded his arguments on the point of maintainability of the contempt petition filed against President Asif Ali Zardari for not relinquishing political office.
Earlier, as the bench resumed proceedings on Wednesday, the Chief Justice asked the counsel to advance arguments on constitutional immunity enjoyed by President as he had completed arguments on issue of maintainability and initiated arguments about the immunity during the last hearing.
However, Sajjad insisted on arguing on the maintainability issue, saying the point of Article 248(2) would raise after the court declared the instant petition maintainable. To this, the petitioner's counsel, A.K Dogar, stated that the question of the maintainability had been decided in order issued by the bench on October 10, 2012. He said the proceedings were on a stage of issuing a show cause notice to the President under section 17 of Contempt of Court Law.
Sajjad, however, reiterated his arguments that the LHC had not issued any binding direction to the President, and added, "If the court issues any direct order, then we will defend it." On the other side, Dogar argued that the Supreme Court had already ruled that nobody was above the law and courts under Article 204 of the Constitution could punish anybody for committing contempt of court.
He said the SC also declared that Article 248(1) of the Constitution was in clear violation of Article 25. He further said that Article 248(1) did not provide immunity to anybody from any legal proceedings. At this point, the Chief Justice pointed out that President and Governors enjoyed immunity under Article 248(2) and the ambit of both articles was different.
During the course of arguments, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah also asked Dogar to cite Constitution of any country which allowed action against President or any example of conviction of any head of state. The counsel said at the moment he could only discuss Constitution of Pakistan, however, would find out such examples. The bench adjourned further hearing till Friday (today) with direction to the petitioner's counsel to come up with arguments on the point of immunity.
Advocate Sajjad expressed his unavailability to attend Friday's hearing. However, the Chief Justice observed that the court had heard arguments of the federation and the presence of its counsel was not required during further hearings. Munir Ahmad filed a contempt of court petition against President for holding political office and indulging in political activities in violation of a LHC full bench order. The petitioner said the President had neither disassociated himself from political office as expected by the LHC full bench in its decision against president's dual office. He prayed that the President should be issued a show cause notice and punished for the contempt of court.