LHC Seeks Malik's Remission Notification

The Lahore High Court Thursday ordered the government to present presidential notification regarding condoning of Interior Minister Rehman Malik’ jail sentence awarded by an accountability court and upheld by a bench of the high court last week .

A petition was moved in the LHC on Wednesday challenging the presidential pardon granted to Malik against his conviction in two corruption references. Save Judiciary Committee’s media adviser Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi filed the petition in which Malik, the federation through the Interior Ministry secretary; the principal secretary to President Asif Ali Zardari and the chairman of NAB Islamabad have been named respondents.

The petitioner’s lawyer Barrister Farooq Hassan submitted that the remission of Malik’s sentence by the president under Article 45 was illegal, saying such a pardon was legal if an accused had exhausted all legal remedies.