KARACHI, March 11: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the holding of offices of the president of Pakistan and the co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party by Asif Ali Zardari when the petitioner withdrew it.

A three-member bench headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar dismissed the petition of Advocate Rasheed Akhund, a senior PPP stalwart, who had prayed to the court to direct the president to resign from the party co-chairmanship because he could not hold two offices under the Constitution.

He impleaded President Asif Ali Zardari, the senate chairman, the national assembly speaker and the secretaries of the parliamentary affairs, the establishment, and the law and justice divisions as respondents.

Over two years ago, the then SHC Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany had ordered the constitution of a larger bench to hear the petition in view of the sensitivity of the case.

The petition came up for hearing at least over a dozen times during the past two years, but the court had to just repeat the notices to the respondents as none of them ever appeared in court, nor did they submit their replies.

On Monday, Advocate Akhund appeared in court to state that he wanted to withdraw his petition as the term of the president was almost over. The bench ordered that the petition stood dismissed as it was not pressed by the petitioner.

‘Missing persons’ cases

A division bench headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar directed the police and Rangers to track down five people allegedly picked by the paramilitary troops during raids in different parts of the city.

The bench issued notices to the home secretary, provincial police chiefs, director general of Rangers and other police officials in five different petitions for ‘missing persons’ and directed them to file their respective replies.

The court put the advocate general and prosecutor general on notice and adjourned the hearing till  March 20.

One of the petitioners, Nusrat Jahan, submitted that her 30-year-old son, Babar Ahmed, was picked up on March 5 and his whereabouts were still unknown.

She said that she had approached the Brigade police station for lodging an FIR in this regard, but the officials refused to do so.

Petition Asma Kanwal stated that her son Mohammed Shakir was picked up on March by the Rangers officials and she did not know where her son was taken.

Petitioner Uzma Aftab stated that her husband Aftab Aslam was taken away by Rangers on March 13 during a raid at their house.

Petitioner Hamida submitted that her 20-year-old son Nauman was picked up by Rangers on March 6 in Landhi, and petitioner Khalid Pervaiz said that the whereabouts of his nephew were not known since March 3 when he was taken away by the Rangers.

The petitioners prayed to the court to direct the respondent officials to produce the missing persons in court.