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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court formally admitted for hearing on Tuesday a petition filed against a perceived move to sack Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI Director General Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha against the backdrop of the memo controversy. The court ordered its office to entertain the petition.
At the same time, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez allowed the federal government, the respondent in the petition, to raise the question of maintainability against the petition any time during the hearing.
The bench had taken up an appeal of Advocate F.K. Butt against an order of the court office which had returned the petition terming it unacceptable. At the last hearing on Jan 20, the court had asked the government to submit a written assurance on the apprehensions expressed by the petitioner.
On Tuesday, the court directed its office to entertain the petition after going through a relevant judgment, the Supreme Court Rules 1980 and hearing the point of view of Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq.
The court cited a 2004 verdict and said the registrar could not take decisions on maintainability or non-maintainability of petitions.
The court told the attorney general that because of sensitivity of the matter it could hear the case in chambers, but the bench would hear it in the open court because it wanted assistance on the competency of the petition.
The attorney general reiterated the statement he had made earlier that the petition was based on media reports.
In his petition, Advocate Butt argues that the respondents have no lawful jurisdiction to prematurely remove or retire the two top army officers.
