LHC disposes of decade-long pending pleas against Musharraf, Zardari, Gilani

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court full bench Wednesday disposed of decade-long pending petitions against former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani and former presidents Pervez Musharraf and Asif Ali Zardari.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti disposed of the petitions for being infructuous. Justice Ayesha A. Malik and Justice Shujaat Ali Khan were the other members of the bench.

Advocate Rana Ilamuddin Ghazi had filed petitions against Musharraf and Zardari while advocate Shahid Naseem Gondal and advocate Allah Bakhsh Gondal against Gilani. These petitions filed during the period from 2010 to 2012 were last heard by the Lahore High Court in 2017. All the three lawyers passed away during the pendency of their petitions.

Senior lawyer AK Dogar, who was the counsel of advocate Ghazi in one of the petitions also died last year. The bench disposed of another petition filed by advocate Azhar Siddique seeking disqualification of the then prime minister Gilani.

The petitions against Musharraf had sought treason proceedings against him for imposing emergency in the country. In another petition, the court was asked to disqualify Zardari for holding political office of the PPP while being in office of the president. Against Gilani, the petitioners said he continued to hold office of the prime minister despite his conviction under contempt of court charge by the Supreme Court.