Sindh High Court quashes petition challenging Zardari’s electoral eligibility

KARACHI - The Sindh High Court has quashed a petition challenging President Asif Ali Zardari’s eligibility, saying he enjoys constitutional amnesty from court proceedings.

Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani observed that the 2008 Presidential election could not be challenged, and that Zardari could only be removed from the chair through impeachment.

The petition filed by advocate Maulvi Iqbal Haider asked for scrutiny of Zardari’s nomination papers by the election commission saying that he too was a beneficiary of the defunct National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).

The petitioner also argued that following the Supreme Court’s judgement on the NRO, all those cases dismissed under the controversial amnesty law were restored.

It may be noted that in December last year, a 17-member judge bench, headed by Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had declared the NRO as “unconstitutional” and “invalid from the outset”. (ANI)