LHC CJ serves notices to federation, governor Punjab for a reply to petition saying president has no right to grant pardon.
LAHORE:?The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday issued a?stay order against the death sentence of the blasphemy convict Aasia Bibi.
A petition had been filed in the Lahore High Court by Advocate Allah Bakhsh Leghari, contending?reports of a?presidential pardon.?The petitioner said?the president?did not have the right to grant a?presidential pardon as the decision was still pending in the court.
The Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court,?Khwaja Sharif has therefore issued a stay order and served notices to the federation and the governor Punjab for a reply.
Meanwhile, religious organisations and civil society members continue countrywide protests and demonstrations, for and against Aasia bibi’s sentence.
Earlier, The Express Tribune had reported that government officials and lawmakers were in agreement that the president cannot pardon Aasia Bibi. ?According to Article 45 of the Constitution of Pakistan, the president has the power to grant pardon, reprieve and respite, and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority. However, a home department official who had spoken to The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity had said that the Punjab government had observed – in its reply to the federal government’s proposal to abolish the death penalty – that the power of the president to grant pardon only extends to Tazir punishments.
A sentence under a Tazir is imposed on the state’s command and not as a right of the individual under Allah’s law, the Punjab government had held.
Muhammad Safdar Shaheen Pirzada, a lawyer, had also said, “The president can grant pardon to a person who has committed any offence against the state. However, the president has no power to extend pardon if an offence is ?omitted against religion, the Holy Prophet (pbuh) or Allah.”
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