{"id":567396,"date":"2010-05-17T10:10:53","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T14:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/05\/pakistan-court-challenges-presidents-dual-offices.php"},"modified":"2010-05-17T10:10:53","modified_gmt":"2010-05-17T14:10:53","slug":"pakistan-court-challenges-presidents-dual-offices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/567396","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan court challenges president&#8217;s dual offices"},"content":{"rendered":"<table align=\"left\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jurist.law.pitt.edu\/topstoryphoto\/frontpakistan.jpg\" alt=\"Photo source or description\" valign=\"top\" align=\"left\" border=\"1\" hspace=\"0\" vspace=\"4\" \/><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jurist.law.pitt.edu\/images\/s.gif\" border=\"0\" height=\"1\" width=\"5\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>[JURIST] Pakistan&#8217;s Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday ordered the principal secretary for <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/4032997.stm\">President Asif Ali Zardari<\/a> [BBC profile; JURIST <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/jurist_search.php?q=asif+ali+zardari\">news archive<\/a>] principle secretary to appear before the court in order to explain how Zardari is able to effectively serve as president while also leading the country&#8217;s ruling party.  The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSTRE64G2CV20100517\">petition was filed<\/a> [Reuters report] by the Pakistan Lawyers Forum, which agreed with the secretary&#8217;s representation of Zardari due to security reasons. Zardari&#8217;s control of these two offices does not violate Pakistan&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pakistani.org\/pakistan\/constitution\/\">Constitution<\/a> [text], but the high court has previously barred officials from holding dual offices. After winning the presidency in September 2008, Zardari continued to serve as chairman of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ppp.org.pk\/\">Pakistan Peoples Party<\/a> (PPP) [official website], which won the plurality of seats in the 2008 election and currently heads the ruling coalition. The principal secretary is set to appear before the court on May 25.<\/p>\n<p>Zardari gained control of the presidency after former military leader <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/south_asia\/7567592.stm\">Pervez Musharraf<\/a> [BBC profile; JURIST <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/jurist_search.php?q=Pervez+Musharraf\">news archive<\/a>] resigned amid impeachment pressure. In April, Zardari <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/04\/pakistan-amendment-curbing-presidential.php\">signed into law<\/a> [JURIST report] the <a  href=\"http:\/\/www.na.gov.pk\/govt_bills\/govt_bill2010\/constitution_eighteenth_amendment_act2010_060410.pdf\">18th Amendment bill<\/a> [text, PDF], limiting presidential powers expanded under Musharraf. Under the amendment, which effectively reduces the role of the president to a figurehead, the vast majority of the president&#8217;s powers will be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/pakistan\/Key-points-of-Pakistani-constitutional-reform\/533274\/H1-Article1-533209.aspx\">transferred<\/a> [AFP report] to the <a href=\"http:\/\/202.83.164.26\/wps\/portal\/Cabinet\/%21ut\/p\/c1\/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os_hQN68AZ3dnIwML82BTAyNXTz9jE0NfQwNDE_1wkA6zeAMcwNFA388jPzdVvyA7rxwAicV1Mg%21%21\/dl2\/d1\/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnB3LzZfVUZKUENHQzIwODdTNTAyRUlOMzQxTTEwOTQ%21\/?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=\/wps\/wcm\/connect\/CabDivCL\/division\/secretary\/prime+minister\">office of the prime minister<\/a> [official website]. The introduction of the bill came amid controversy over reopening corruption investigations against Zardari. Weeks earlier, Pakistan&#8217;s attorney general Anwar Mansoor <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/04\/pakistan-ag-resigns-amid-corruption.php\">announced his resignation<\/a> over controversy surrounding a Supreme Court <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/03\/pakistan-high-court-orders-government.php\">order to investigate corruption allegations<\/a> [JURIST reports]. Last month, Swiss authorities denied a <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2010\/03\/pakistan-officials-urge-switzerland-to.php\">request<\/a> [JURIST report] from Pakistan&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nab.gov.pk\/\">National Accountability Bureau<\/a> [official website], refusing to reopen a corruption investigation against Zardari. Aides to Zardari believe that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution, even after the Supreme Court <a href=\"http:\/\/jurist.org\/paperchase\/2009\/12\/pakistan-supreme-court-strikes-down.php\">overturned an amnesty law<\/a> [JURIST report] implemented by Musharraf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[JURIST] Pakistan&#8217;s Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday ordered the principal secretary for President Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] principle secretary to appear before the court in order to explain how Zardari is able to effectively serve as president while also leading the country&#8217;s ruling party. The petition was filed [Reuters report] [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7088,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-567396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7088"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}