ISLAMABAD(PTI): The Lahore High Court April 21 declined to suspend the presidential order, dissolving the national assembly even as the sacked prime minister, Nawaz Sharif embarked on a train journey from Rawalpindi to Lahore to mobilize support in Punjab against his ouster./9
A five judge bench of the court, headed by its chief justice, Mahub Ahmed, however, admitted the petition for regular hearing, filed by the former national assembly speaker, Gohar Ayub Khan, challenging the dissolution of the house, under the eighth amendment, on April 18.
The court issued notice to the federation for May 3 which was accepted by the attorney general, Aziz A. Munshi, who was present during the proceedings.
The judges directed Munshi to file a written reply to the petition within a week.
Amidst cheering by thousands of people at the Rawalpindi railway station, 43yearold Sharif vowed to return to the capital by winning the scheduled July 14 elections with the support of the masses.
Maintaining that his dismissal had badly hurt Pakistan’s economy with a sharp fall in the stock exchange index, Sharif charged the president, Ghulam Ishaq Khan with carrying out an “illegal action” and appealed to the people to rise against it. He declared that the government’s ouster would be fought in courts.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 23, 1993
