Islamabad, Nov 1 : Pakistan Supreme Court judge has asked why should the court not intervene in an issue of national importance involving the President’s office in the country when it was frequently intervening in issues of public interest.

Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday is a member of a 11-judge bench hearing petitions dealing with Musharraf’s eligibility to contest the presidential election.

“Aren’t we intervening every day on issues like traffic jams and price hike or has other matters or the election of the President become so unimportant that we should not intervene,” he observed.

“It had already been held by the courts that technicalities never deterred the judiciary from dispensing justice”, Ramday added.

Justice Ramday’s remarks came when Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum, presenting his arguments on the petitions’ maintainability, said the court should not be bogged down with the idea of enforcing fundamental rights by enlarging its jurisdiction when the petitioners had not pointed out infringement of any fundamental right.

The chances of a ruling on the petitions on Friday diminished when Qayyum told the court that he would conclude his arguments on Thursday and Musharraf’s counsel Sharifuddin Pirzada and Central Government’s lawyer Waseem Sajjad would need one day each to complete their arguments.

Lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, the counsel for the petitioner, also wanted the right of reply to points raised by the respondents.

Earlier, Justice Iqbal suggested that the court expected to give a decision by Friday, but hinted at resuming the hearing from November 12 if the case was not completed. (ANI)