The Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Friday directed Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif to submit a reply by June 19 in response to a petition of former army chief Ziauddin Butt who had sought the release of his post-retirement benefits. He also urged the court to declare his removal by then army chief General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) as illegal.
Earlier, defence ministry submitted a reply and stated that LHC lacked jurisdiction to hear cases of CoAS's appointment. The instant petition should be declared non-maintainable and petitioner be directed to approach an appropriate forum. To this, the petitioner's counsel said the PM is the appointing authority of CoAS and prayed to the court to allow them to make PM Nawaz Sharif and law ministry as necessary parties to the petition. The petitioner submitted that the then President, Rafiq Tarar, had on October 12, 1999 appointed him as chief of army staff on the recommendations of the then PM, Nawaz Sharif.