Case against Patron: LHC adjourns hearing till Sept 3

Lahore, Aug 31: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday called a federal government law officer to help it determine the question whether the president of Pakistan can be impleaded before it in his capacity as the patron of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

As Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took up the Lahore City Cricket Association petition against the dissolution of the PCB executive and council and its own dissolution for their `unsatisfactory' performance, board counsel Ali Sibtain Fazli submitted that he had no notice and required time to answer the petitioner's allegations.

Mr Fazli informed the court that he represented only the PCB and its ad hoc committee whereas the petitioner has also cited the patron, who is the president of Pakistan, as a respondent. The question required careful consideration as Article 248 of the Constitutionextends immunity to the president andstate functionaries in the performance of their functions, he said.

The court adjourned the hearing till Sept 3 and also called a deputy attorney-general to help resolve the legal question raised by the PCB counsel.

The petition alleges that the PCB executive and council and the Lahore city cricket association have been superseded for extraneous reasons. The patron had no material before him to `satisfy' himself that the (defunct) bodies were `unable to performtheir functions satisfactorily' before takingthe impugned action.

The LCCA says that the patron's 'satisfaction' must be objective and not subjective or whimsical.