A five-member full bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday once again adjourned the hearing of a constitutional petition challenging embargo on holding public office of prime minister or chief minister for third time.

The bench comprising of Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Justice Ch Iftikhar Hussain, Justice Sh Azmat Saeed, Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman deferred the hearing as the attorney general of Pakistan was not available due his other engagements.

Advocate Tariq Aziz Malik had moved the petition under article 199 of the constitution in which he had submitted that the restriction was imposed through the chief executive order 19 of 2002 by the then dictator Pervez Musharraf.

He said it was laid down in the law that any person who had already held the office of prime minister or chief minister twice should not be qualified to hold the office(s) for the third time. He said it was against the constitutional right of a person to take part in the election.

He said that article 62 and 63 laid down the qualification for a person to be elected as member of national or provincial assembly and it had not imposed any restriction on third time election. He said this constitutional right could not be taken away through an executive order He said the Supreme Court of Pakistan had held in Zafar Ali Shah case that a constitutional right could not be taken away by an executive order.